Politifact Hits at Ted Cruz, but He Drops a Little Reality on the Fact Checker

We’re in a deep slide when it comes to journalistic norms over the past few years.

It’s even hit the fact-checkers who seem to have become as political as all the other “journalists” shilling for the Democratic Party.

One fairly egregious incident of horrible journalism that we reported a few days ago was from the Huffington Post. They falsely claimed that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was lying when he said the GOP hadn’t “court-packed” when they were in power. Of course, Cruz wasn’t lying, it was the HuffPo that wasn’t telling the truth. When the HuffPo was hit with a massive backlash for that lie, they pulled their original tweet and substituted a “corrected one,” now claiming that his “dishonesty” was in saying the Republicans had never “rigged the game.”

We chastised the HuffPo, observing that filling vacancies or denying nominations is not “rigging” it, it’s proper Constitutional process. A president is not guaranteed that his nominees will be approved; the Senate does not have to approve a nominee.

So did the fact-checker, Politifact, call out these false claims when they looked at the question?

On the contrary, they were even worse than the HuffPo, claiming that what Cruz said was false when it was demonstrably true.

NEW: Ted Cruz said, "You didn't see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game" in Supreme Court nominations. The GOP had the power to do what it did, but it doesn't mean they weren’t rigging the game. https://t.co/jDlZuRodvu pic.twitter.com/eszlysipp8

— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) April 27, 2021

Notice how they are twisting like a pretzel even in that spin. If it was within the rules and their power, as Politifact admits, how is it “rigging?” If you are playing by the existing rules, as the Republicans did, you are not rigging the game. If you are trying to change the rules, change the definitions of words, and proposing to pack the court, as the Democrats are arguing, you are rigging the game.

Moreover, Politifact, in that tweet, leaves out the full quote, clipping out a vitally important part of what Cruz was saying.

“You didn’t see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game. You didn’t see us try to pack the Court,” Cruz declared. But Politifact left out that last part thereby changing the meaning of what Cruz was saying.

Quote was referring to increasing size of SCOTUS as rigging the game, but you treat quote as a list, omit the second half of the quote, then find someone to give you an opinion that you like for the first half and call it a “fact” and the whole thing as FALSE because of course. pic.twitter.com/oqJ39CxGXW

— Razor (@hale_razor) April 27, 2021

This is not a fact-check. It's leftist propaganda because @Politifact hates (yes, hates) conservatives, but especially those that push back like @TedCruz.

There's nothing objectively true about your partisan B.S. https://t.co/dqWpL17Dul

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 27, 2021

Cruz’s spokesperson, Steve Guest, busted Politifact for their effort to redefine reality.

THREAD.
There was absolutely nothing to fact check in Senator Cruz’s indisputably true statement, "You didn't see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game. You didn't see us try to pack the court."

Absolutely nothing was rigged by Republicans. https://t.co/WrJFjBQNM6

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 27, 2021

Presidents nominate judges.

The Senate gives or withholds advice and consent.

Those are the rules and Republicans followed them.

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 27, 2021

PolitiFact is giving a platform for the left’s Orwellian impulse to redefine words.

The consequence of redefining words to suit the Democrat Party’s preferred political outcome will do grave damage to the discourse in America. https://t.co/WrJFjBQNM6

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 27, 2021

Then Cruz really laid them out.

Lying liars lie & that’s what Politi”fact” does every day.

To “pack” the Supreme Court is to ADD seats for political advantage. Republicans did NOT do so when we had control-nobody even suggested it.

Now, Dems have filed legislation to EXPAND SCOTUS from 9 to 13 Justices. FACT. https://t.co/jCLjiXWGcr

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 27, 2021

HT: Twitchy