On Thursday, a Twitter account that ran the concept of “My Cancer Journey” posted a three-tweet story that other people shared tens of thousands of times on Twitter before being deleted.
The tweets were written by someone whose nephew was shot in the Robb Elementary School massacre. The tweets stated that an Abbott representative knocked on his door shortly after returning home after identifying his nephew’s body, and that this representative “informed us that he is willing to pay us to be with the government and say we don’t need stronger gun laws. ” . ”
The tweets claimed that the governor’s representative threatened them with “charges and possibly worse” if they talked about the conversation, and that even the representative said that “people get hurt and disappear all the time.”
In all, all three tweets were retweeted or quoted more than 67,000 times and liked more than 240,000 times. Many of these actions were by liberals opposed to Abbott and Cruz. While some wondered if the story was real or not, others considered it authentic.
Facts first: The viral story about Abbott is false. The “My Cancer Journey” account deleted all three viral tweets on Friday and then the account was completely disconnected. The man behind the account insisted in a brief telephone interview on Friday on CNN that an unknown person who had somehow had access to the account had posted the tweets as a “deception.” But the man declined to recount a series of past tweets, long before the Uvalde massacre, in which he made a variety of other sensational and highly dubious claims about his life.
Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in an email: “This did not happen and would never be allowed to happen.” He said Abbott would never allow an employee to show up unannounced at the door of a grieving family in the first place.
Speaking in a bewildered tone on Friday, the man behind the account claimed that he and a lawyer were trying to figure out who the real tweet poster was. He also claimed that they had reported the alleged intrusion of the account to “authorities” whom he did not identify.
Rachel Millman, the social media editor of the New York Observer publication, did much of the research on the history of suspicious claims on the “My Cancer Journey” account. Several others on Twitter also raised questions about the account before CNN hit the man on Friday.
False statement about Cruz’s tweets
Another Twitter user accused Cruz of tweeting exactly the same three sentences after 12 different mass shootings, changing only the location each time.
This tweet, from a user called “chavito” on Twitter and the rap name Cali Kev, has generated more than 17,000 retweets and tweet quotes, in addition to more than 43,000 likes.
“Chavito” wrote: “These mass shootings happen so much that Ted Cruz really had a staff ready to tweet whenever they happen,” he added, censoring the situation and calling it “savage.”
The viral tweet included a collage of 12 images showing Cruz allegedly tweeting the same words over and over again: “Heidi and I are fervently raising children and families in prayer in the horrific shooting of [location]. We are in close contact with the local authorities, but the precise details are still being developed. Thanks to the heroic law enforcement and the first people in charge for acting so quickly. ”
Facts: Eleven of Cruz’s 12 alleged viral collage tweets are fake. Cruz tweeted these three sentences after the mass shooting in Uvalde, but not after any other incident.
The man behind the “chavito” account did not respond to a request for comment. Cruz’s office confirmed that the senator tweeted this message in response to the Uvalde massacre but not in response to any other.
Some other Twitter users criticized Cruz for using similar language, about prayer and law enforcement, in his tweets about some previous shootings. This is a fair game. But the allegation in the viral tweet was that he used the same three complete sentences after 12 shootings, and that is not true.