A screenshot purports to show a 2016 tweet from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz concerning climate change. Cruz’s office said the tweet was fake, and there is no record of Cruz ever posting it. The phony screenshot went viral anyway.
In the final days of the 2018 election, Republicans across the country are running TV ads about immigration that falsely accuse some Democrats of wanting “open borders,” plotting to “abolish ICE,” supporting “sanctuary cities” and more.
Q: Were “charges filed” against U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke of Texas for accepting an “illegal $10 million campaign donation” from CNN?
A: No. A Libertarian opponent filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming CNN’s town hall event with O’Rourke was worth $10 million.
A misleading TV ad from Sen. Ted Cruz claims Rep. Beto O’Rourke “said crossing the border illegally should not be a crime.” O’Rourke wasn’t referring to all illegal border crossings. He said asylum-seekers who enter the country between official entry ports should not be prosecuted.
In a televised debate on taxes, Sen. Ted Cruz denied that he ever called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” But in a 2011 interview, Cruz gave the definition of a “Ponzi scheme” and said, “That is exactly how Social Security operates.”
Sen. Ted Cruz wrongly claimed that a 2013 Hurricane Sandy relief bill was “filled with pork and unrelated spending,” estimating that “two-thirds of what was spent in that bill had little or nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy.”
Sen. Ted Cruz claimed that “Obamacare is discouraging people from going to medical school.” Actually, medical school applicants and enrollees are at an all-time high.
It’s Groundhog Day all right. But instead of seeing our shadows, we noticed politicians making some of the same false and misleading claims that we have written about several times before.
Sen. Ted Cruz said that “it has been 80 years since the Senate confirmed any judicial vacancy for the Supreme Court that occurred during a presidential election.” He’s (almost) right, but his claim lacks context.