An image shared on Facebook over 1,000 times claims to show a tweet from Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that reads, “I’ll believe in climate change when Texas freezes over.”

Verdict: False

There is no record of Cruz sending or deleting the tweet. It appears to have been fabricated.

Fact Check:

Some social media users have been sharing a screen grab of what appears to be a Sept. 8, 2016 tweet from Cruz regarding his views on climate change: “I’ll believe in climate change when Texas freezes over.” This week, a winter storm left millions in Texas without water and electricity.

Cruz has expressed skepticism about anthropogenic climate change in the past. In a 2019 interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Cruz said that data on whether carbon emissions warm the earth is “mixed.” He also argued during a 2015 interview with NPR that the “scientific evidence doesn’t support global warming,” a statement the host pushed back on.

The tweet, however, appears to have been fabricated. Check Your Fact searched both of Cruz’s verified Twitter accounts – @tedcruz and @SenTedCruz – but found no matches. It also does not appear in ProPublica’s archive of his deleted tweets dating back to 2012 or in archived screen grabs of his Twitter account from 2016.

Some iterations of the post shared on social media include a “satire” label, further adding to the tweet’s dubiousness. (RELATED: Does This Photo Show A Helicopter Spraying De-Icer Made From Fossil Fuels On A Texas Wind Turbine In 2021?)

Cruz has faced criticism for flying to Cancun, Mexico, with his family on Wednesday as Texans continued to deal with the effects of the winter storm, according to CNN. He returned the next day and told reporters that the trip “was obviously a mistake” and said in an earlier statement that he was trying to be a “good dad,” the outlet reported.