Donald Trump Accuses Ted Cruz’s Dad of Hanging Out with Lee Harvey Oswald

Here’s Donald Trump on Fox this morning, responding to the news that Ted Cruz’s father had said a Cruz loss could mean “the destruction of America”:

For those of you who can’t play the video, Trump said: “You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being, uh, you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right prior to his being shot. And nobody even brings it up. I mean, they don’t even talk about that. That was reported, uh, and nobody talks about it. But I think it’s horrible, I think it’s absolutely horrible, that a man can go and do that, what he’s saying.”

Trump is alluding to a National Enquirer story claiming that Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, was the mystery man photographed with Oswald as they handed out literature for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, a pro-Castro group that once was fairly prominent but these days is pretty much only remembered because of its Oswald connection. (For some reasons to be skeptical of the Enquirer report, go here.) While Trump doesn’t come out and say it, he’s clearly intimating that the senior Cruz may have been mixed up somehow in the JFK assassination.

Kennedy assassination theorists have run for the White House before—John Kerry, for example, doubts the lone-gunman position—but I think this is the first time a leading presidential candidate has implied his rival’s father was involved in the affair. 2016: still full of surprises!