Senator Ted Cruz deleted a tweet on Friday, after he was duped by a fake Atlantic magazine story about Muslim white supremacists, the latest in a long list of social media gaffes for the conservative leader.
“The Left is beyond parody,” the Texas Republican wrote on Twitter, sharing a story with the headline “The Evolution of White Supremacy,” describing how in “Dearborn Michigan, Muslim parents who oppose teaching pornography to children become the new face of the far right.”
The article, as Mediaite reports, isn’t real, and the supposed author doesn’t even work at the magazine, a Reuters fact-check notes.
Mr Cruz removed his post.
“The image posted by Cruz is fake, not a real Atlantic article. (So: parody the senator is citing as evidence the left is beyond parody.),” joked CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.
Like most pieces of fake news, the story Mr Cruz was sharing had a glancing connection to a real current event.
Numerous parents in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the largest Arab-American communities in the country, have been protesting a number of books used in public school which touch on LGTBQ+ themes and other topics they believe are inappropriate for children. Multiple school board meetings this week have descended into shouting matches, and the district is putting six titles under review: Push by Sapphire; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell; Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston; All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson; and This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson.
Mr Cruz has a history of falling for bad information online.
Last September, he tweeted then deleted an innaccurate post claiming to show the Taliban hanging a man from a helicopter, evidence, the Senator claimed, of “Joe Biden’s Afghanistan catastrophe.”
Later that year, Mr Cruz was mocked for mixing up Washington state, initials WA, and West Australia in another post slamming Covid protocols.
“Blue-state Dems are power-drunk authoritarian kill-joys,” Mr Cruz wrote. “Washington State: NO DANCING ALLOWED!!! Any rational & free citizen: Piss off.”
This year, he falsely claimed that Massachusetts authorities had activated the National Guard to “interdict” migrants that Florida governor Ron DeSantis sent to Martha’s Vineyard on a surprise charter flight. Instead, the Guard was activated to assist with emergency shelter efforts.
Most controversially, in 2017, Mr Cruz’s Twitter account briefly hit like on a pornographic video, though the Senator’s office later said it was an accident committed by an aide.
The Independent has contacted Mr Cruz’s office for comment.
