ROAD TO 2016
The Ted Cruz file
Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz
Age: Born Dec. 22, 1970 ( 44)
Political party: Republican
Political experience: Domestic policy advisor to the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign; associate deputy attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, director, Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission; solicitor general, state of Texas; elected in 2012 as the 34th U.S. Senator from Texas.
Education: Graduated with honors from Princeton University, with high honors from Harvard Law School, was law clerk to William Rehnquist, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Hispanic to serve in that position.
Business: Private law practice
Family: He and his wife Heidi live in Houston with their two daughters, Caroline and Catherine.
Interesting factoid: Father was born in Cuba and fled to Texas in 1957, penniless and not speaking a word of English. He made 50 cents an hour washing dishes, put himself through the University of Texas and started a small business in the oil and gas industry. His father is now a pastor in Dallas.
Source: Cruz Senate website, news reports
(NOTE: This is the third in a series of fact-checks on the 2016 presidential hopefuls. Today we look at U.S.. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.)
With new candidates jumping into the 2016 presidential race now almost weekly, it may be hard to remember that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was first out of the gate.
But it’s true. Way back on March 23, Cruz, who has been labeled a Senate bomb-thrower by both detractors and supporters, first put the word out on Twitter.
“I’m running for President and I hope to earn your support!,” Cruz tweeted before making a more traditional announcement speech before thousands of cheering students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
Cruz, a one-term senator, is considered a divisive figure by some in both parties in Washington and a rare voice for truth by some conservatives and evangelicals. He’s suggested that, as president, he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, abolish the Internal Revenue Service, “defend the sanctity of human life and uphold the sacrament of marriage.”
Forty-eight of his statements had been run through the Truth-O-Meter as of last week. They earned one True, seven Mostly True, seven Half True, 13 Mostly False, 16 False and four Pants on Fire ratings.
See them all at: http://cms.politifact.com/personalities/ted-cruz/
Here’s a sampling:
Ted Cruz on March 16, 2013 in a speech to CPAC.
“We have a federal government that thinks they have the authority to regulate our toilet seats.”
Cruz name-dropped the familiar fixtures in his March 16, 2013, speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC.
“We have a federal government that thinks they have the authority to regulate our toilet seats,” he said.
Does the long arm of the law extend into your bathroom?
While federal attention to toilet seats has dropped since its brief foray into seat shape in the ‘70s, and now mainly addresses toilet access for workers and height for wheelchair users, Cruz is firmly right that the courts, Congress, and executive agencies claim federal power to regulate them.
His toilet trivia is True.
Ted Cruz on Feb. 8, 2015 in comments on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“The Obama administration is refusing to directly arm the Kurds.”
On NBC’s Meet the Press Feb. 8, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the United States’ current policy regarding the Kurds — an ethnic group partially located in northern Iraq, in and around cities under Islamic State control.
“We have supplied (the Kurds) with enormous amount of ammunition, weapons, other things. And others are supplying them,” he said.
Cruz characterized the situation differently.
“What makes no sense whatsoever is the Obama administration is refusing to directly arm the Kurds,” he said the same day on CNN’s State of the Union. “We need to arm the Kurds now because they are our boots on the ground.”
The administration has sent a significant amount of arms and other aid to the Iraqi Kurds to assist in the fight against the Islamic State. But Cruz is right to say that this aid is indirect — it has to go through the Iraqi government under current law.Cruz’s statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.
We rated it Mostly True.
Ted Cruz on Feb. 8, 2015 in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union”
“92 million Americans aren’t working.”
On the Feb. 8, 2015, edition of CNN’s State of the Union, host Dana Bash asked Cruz whether he would run for president. He responded that the country is facing enormous challenges.
Among them: “92 million Americans aren’t working.”
We’ve previously checked a claim by Cruz that “we’ve got the lowest labor force participation in over three decades, since 1978.” We rated that Mostly True at the time, and it’s still an accurate claim today.
Once you strip out senior citizens and school-age Americans, the number is less than half that. The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so we rated it Mostly False.
Ted Cruz on Feb., 1, 2013 in a Politico column
Says Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary “has been publicly celebrated by the Iranian government.”
Cruz, who opposed the confirmation of Chuck Hagel as U.S. Secretary of Defense, shared his qualms in a February opinion column posted by Politico.
The freshman Texas Republican said Hagel’s nomination, which was announced by President Barack Obama in January, “has been publicly celebrated by the Iranian government — surely an occurrence without precedent for a nominee for secretary of Defense.”
Cruz’s office pointed us to a Jan. 8, 2013, Reuters news account in which a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry responded to a question about Hagel’s views on Israel and U.S. sanctions on Iran.
By email, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier also noted that CBS News headlined its post of the Reuters story: “Hagel nomination cheers Iran, worries Israel” and the New York Times headlined the story: “Iran: Foreign Ministry Voices Optimism in Hagel Nomination in U.S.”
The Reuters story opens: “Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it hoped the appointment of Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. defense secretary would lead to ‘practical changes’ in Washington’s foreign policy.”
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman expressed hope that with Hagel as secretary, Washington would become “respectful of the rights of nations” and if so, he said, Iran’s hatred of U.S. policies will decrease.
Experts differ on the significance of those comments. But they concur that the response fell short of a governmental celebration, with most saying it was far from it.
Our sense is there has been no Hagel party in Iran, leaving this claim worse than incorrect. It’s ridiculous. Pants on Fire!
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