Ted Cruz Did Not Swallow A Fly on Live TV
The Claim
Ted Cruz accidentally ate a fly during a live television interview on Fox News.
Emerging story
On Thursday morning, a Fox News interview with Senator Ted Cruz went viral on Twitter. The short clip appears to show the senator accidentally swallowing a fly that managed to crawl into his mouth. Shortly after, the hashtag #ToadCruz began trending.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s analysis revealed that the viral video is manipulated footage. Cruz gave this interview on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on June 27, 2019. The section altered in the viral video begins at around 22 seconds. The original video was uploaded the following day by Senator Ted Cruz’s official YouTube account and no fly is present.
One year ago the original edited footage made its first appearance on Reddit.
It’s claimed to be a spider in this instance and was later changed to a fly on Twitter.
Rafael Edward Cruz is more popularly known as the conservative Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Born in Canada, he garners a lot of attention and criticism. For instance, after a snowstorm hit Texas in February leaving millions without power, Ted Cruz took his family to Cancun, Mexico, while other senators stepped in to help. The story incited ridicule and disappointment from all parts of the political spectrum.
Senator Cruz is a champion of a somewhat progressive gun control policy which has been overshadowed by controversy in the media. His legislation, the Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act of 2019, pushes for many points such as stronger background checks, control of shady gun deals, and it allows access by gun brokers to the FBI’s stolen weapons database to assure those weapons are not in circulation. Many of his reforms have bipartisan favor, and the original bill received a 52-48 vote in a Republican minority Senate though it did eventually fail to pass.
