Senator Ted Cruz deletes tweet of Afghanistan helicopter incident after it’s debunked by fact checkers but maintains Biden is 'incompetent' and ‘left the Taliban weapons'
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz deleted a tweet that appeared to show the Taliban hanging a man from a helicopter in Afghanistan after it was debunked by fact checkers.
The video, which was tweeted out by a self-described comedian with over 73,000 followers and also shared by Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, was captioned, 'Taliban hanging someone from a helicopter in Kandahar.'
It was seen by many viewers as a public Taliban execution as they continue to take over in the country as American forces leave for the first time in 20 years.
The video, which was tweeted out by a self-described comedian with over 73,000 followers and also shared by Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, was captioned, 'Taliban hanging someone from a helicopter in Kandahar'
Fact checkers from both the Associated Press and Reuters debunked the video, which has since been retweeted and quote-tweeted almost 7,000 times.
'The video shows a Taliban fighter attempting to hang the Taliban flag on a tall flagpole on Sunday, according to two Kandahar residents who watched it happen,' the AP said.
'The man hanging from the chopper was alive and could be seen moving in the video.'
Fact checkers from both the Associated Press and Reuters debunked the video, which has since been retweeted and quote-tweeted almost 7,000 times
'What appears to be a zoomed in version of a viral video of a man dangling from a helicopter in Afghanistan shows him moving and waving,' Reuters added.
'This closer-up video, along with other photos that show a similar helicopter and a similar harness, dispel the popular narrative circulating online that the scene shows a man hanged by the Taliban.'
They also noted that a local radio station has said that this was a planned maneuver by the Taliban.
Reuters reported that a local radio station has said that this was a planned maneuver by the Taliban
Cruz, a Republican, deleted but did not apologize for the inaccurate tweet in a correction written on August 31.
'It turns out the post I shared w/ a video of Taliban 'hanging a man' from a helicopter may be inaccurate. So I deleted the tweet,' Cruz wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
'What remains accurate is: The Taliban are brutal terrorists; We left them millions in US military equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters.'
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz deleted a tweet that appeared to show the Taliban hanging a man from a helicopter in Afghanistan after it was debunked by fact checkers
Fellow Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw also shared the tweet with the video and caption, quote-tweeting it to say, 'In what f---ing world was it a good idea to just hand over a country to these people.'
Crenshaw has not deleted or corrected the tweet as of Friday morning.
Both Cruz and Crenshaw have been critical of President Joe Biden's pull out from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year military occupation started in the wake of September 11, 2001.
Crenshaw also reacted to the video but has not deleted or corrected the tweet as of Friday morning
Crenshaw called on Biden to 'resign in disgrace' after the president's speech regarding the end of the war on Tuesday.
'If we needed more proof that Biden has no shame, no dignity, no ability to lead, it was in his speech today,' Crenshaw tweeted on Tuesday.
Cruz criticized multiple facets of the Biden agenda on a podcast with Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel Tuesday.
Biden on Tuesday said the troop withdrawal from Kabul that left 13 US service members dead was an 'extraordinary success'
'What we see with Biden, whether in Afghanistan or whether on our southern border, is radical extremism combined with manifest incompetence,' he said.
Biden on Tuesday said the troop withdrawal from Kabul that left 13 US service members dead was an 'extraordinary success' and blamed Donald Trump and local soldiers for the mess in Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover.
A defiant Biden said the operation couldn't have been done in a 'more orderly manner' and 'respectfully disagreed' with critics who said he should have started the evacuation sooner to avoid the chaos.
The president also hailed the 120,000 people they have gotten to safety in 'one of the biggest airlifts in history', vowed to keep working to get Afghan allies out and said the State Department had reached out to stranded Americans 19 times since March asking if they wanted to leave.
'What we see with Biden, whether in Afghanistan or whether on our southern border, is radical extremism combined with manifest incompetence,' Cruz said in a podcast interview Tuesday
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