Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) fired back at left-leaning MeidasTouch on Tuesday after they fired off a tweet claiming that he had called for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be defunded.
The conversation began with a “NEW UNDERCOVER” video posted by Lauren Windsor that claimed Cruz was on board with defunding the Bureau — despite the fact that he simply nodded along while the person taking the video appeared to be the one making all the assertions.
WATCH:
NEW UNDERCOVER: Ted Cruz agrees to defunding the FBI, says there needs to be “a complete housecleaning that happens at the FBI.” pic.twitter.com/w5aXCtAehH
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) August 30, 2022
“I wanted to say, thank you so much for all you’re doing to fight for Herschel Walker and to take back the Senate,” the woman said, shaking Cruz’s hand. “And I just think it’s so important that you guys are actually going to defund all those IRS agents.”
“Absolutely,” Cruz interjected, but the woman kept talking.
“But I think it’s imperative that you really have to defund the FBI after all the witch hunts that are going on,” she continued — and Cruz could be seen first briefly nodding and then shaking his head, a move that was described by Windsor as Cruz “nodding in agreement.”
What Cruz actually said was as follows: “It is horrific the abuse of power at the FBI, and it’s wrong. And there needs to be a complete housecleaning that happens at the FBI.”
“Are y’all going be able to do that when you regain the Senate?” the woman asked.
“I think we need to fight to do that,” Cruz said, adding, “And we need to fight to have real oversight.”
MeidasTouch ran with Windsor’s caption comment, however, tweeting, “Ted Cruz wants to defund the FBI.”
Ted Cruz wants to defund the FBI. https://t.co/ygkNUm5TWB
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) August 30, 2022
But Cruz hit back, noting that what he had actually said he advocated for in the video was a “complete housecleaning” at the Bureau.
“Leftie Twitter is gonna lie — it’s what they do — but every word I said is true,” Cruz tweeted in response to MeidasTouch. “The FBI’s raid was a horrific ‘abuse of power’; there needs to be ‘a complete housecleaning’ at FBI; we need ‘real oversight’ from Congress. All absolutely true!”
Leftie twitter is gonna lie—it’s what they do—but every word I said is true:
– the FBI’s raid was a horrific “abuse of power”;
– there needs to be “a complete housecleaning” at FBI;
– we need “real oversight” from Congress.
All absolutely true!
More: https://t.co/xKYPHGbjQi https://t.co/tlb5DU5Tjy
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 30, 2022
Cruz’s communications advisor Steve Guest hit back as well, adding, “Obviously, @MeidasTouch didn’t watch the video before tweeting. Instead, they’re just brazenly lying.”
Obviously, @MeidasTouch didn’t watch the video before tweeting. Instead, they’re just brazenly lying.
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) August 30, 2022