Texas senator Ted Cruz took aim at fact-checking website PolitiFact on Friday, criticizing the site for having previously claimed that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke does not plan to “take our guns” after O’Rourke explicitly suggested otherwise at Thursday night’s Democratic debate.
“When we see that being used against children . . . hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” O’Rourke said from the debate stage when asked if he was proposing that the government confiscate legally owned assault-style weapons. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”
Hell yeah, we're going to take your AR-15. If it's a weapon that was designed to kill people on the battlefield, we're going to buy it back. pic.twitter.com/cCEWkG6y0X
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 13, 2019
“Just a reminder, when I said it, PolitiFact (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC) rated ‘Beto wants to take our guns’ as FALSE,” Cruz wrote in a tweet. “Maybe they should buy one of his new t-shirts,” he added, along with a picture of a shirt being sold by the O’Rourke campaign which reads, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15.”
Just a reminder, when I said it, PolitiFact (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC) rated “Beto wants to take our guns” as FALSE. Maybe they should buy one of his new t-shirts…. https://t.co/GqDbk4q272 https://t.co/EnnyDXL3xk
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 13, 2019
In March, PolitiFact fact-checked a line from a Cruz campaign song that accused O’Rourke of wanting to “open borders and . . . take our guns,” awarding it a “false” rating.
“We saw no language authorizing or directing officials to take existing guns,” PolitiFact said of a failed House measure backed by O’Rourke, which would ban the future sale of AR-15s.
“My intent is for AR-15s not to be sold to the public,” O’Rourke told the fact-checking outlet.