FACT CHECK: Does Ted Cruz Send The Same Tweet After Every Mass Shooting?
An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a series of tweets from Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz lamenting various mass shootings.
Facebook/Screenshot
Verdict: False
Only the most recent tweet about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas is real. There is no record of Cruz sending the other 11 tweets included in the image.
Fact Check:
A gunman killed 19 students and two adults at Uvalde, Texas’ Robb Elementary School on May 24, according to NPR. The same day, Cruz tweeted about the attack, writing, “Heidi & I are fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde. We are in close contact with local officials, but the precise details are still unfolding. Thank you to heroic law enforcement & first responders for acting so swiftly.”
Heidi & I are fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde.
We are in close contact with local officials, but the precise details are still unfolding.
Thank you to heroic law enforcement & first responders for acting so swiftly.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 24, 2022
An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows 11 other nearly identical tweets from Cruz that he allegedly sent after other mass shootings, including the school shootings that occurred in Parkland, Florida and Newtown, Connecticut. “These mass shootings happen so much that Ted Cruz really got a template ready to tweet whenever they occur,” reads the image’s caption.
In reality, none of the supposed tweets except the one about the Uvalde shooting can be found on Cruz’s verified Twitter account. There is no record of the other 11 tweets on ProPublica’s Politwoops archive of his deleted tweets either. (RELATED: Did Florida Politician Randy Fine Publish This Tweet About ‘Sacrificing’ School Children For The Second Amendment?)
There are no credible news reports online about Cruz making the statement in question in reference to any other mass shooting. He has posted similar tweets in response to past shootings but never made the same statement about two different shootings.
