The day before Thanksgiving, there was a car crash on the Rainbow Bridge, which links the United States and Canada near Niagara Falls, and Sen. Ted Cruz wasted little time turning to social media to tell the public what he knew of the incident. The Texas Republican’s online missive read:
This confirms our worst fear: the explosion at Rainbow Bridge was a terrorist attack. Both attackers are dead, and one law enforcement officer was injured. I am praying that officer makes a full recovery and is able to spend Thanksgiving surrounded by family and loved ones….
Soon after, officials concluded that it was not, in fact, a terrorist attack. The FBI investigated and ultimately referred the matter to local police as a traffic incident.
It took a couple of days, but Cruz eventually deleted his online message, but not before some critics — including Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California — called the senator out for having peddled a claim that wasn’t true.
To be sure, the Texan wasn’t the only Republican politician to get this wrong, seizing on concerns before getting the facts, but what made this especially notable is that Cruz keeps doing this.
In September, for example, the GOP senator, peddled misinformation about non-existent Biden administration health guidelines limiting consumer to two beers per week. A month earlier, Cruz also pushed misinformation related to barriers along the U.S./Mexico border. Around the same time, he also used social media to disseminate misinformation about flooding in California.
Of course, for those who spend a lot of time online, it’s occasionally easy to fall for bogus information, especially when the fake items reinforce preconceived ideas. The problem for Cruz, however, is that this happens far more often than it should, especially in light of his powerful position.
Revisiting our earlier coverage, it was a couple of years ago when conservatives embraced purported footage of the Taliban hanging a man from an American…
Read the full article here