Ted Cruz Claim About 'Terrorist Attack' Sparks Outrage

Senator Ted Cruz has sparked backlash for his social media post in which he called the car wreck at a U.S.-Canada border crossing a "terrorist attack" after initial reports were deemed misleading.

On Wednesday, two people were killed after a car exploded near the Rainbow Bridge, a border crossing between Ontario and New York state, near Niagara Falls. Officials said that the crash victims were both in the vehicle, which witnesses said was "flying" through the air near a U.S. security checkpoint before bursting into flames.

A handful of media outlets had initially reported that the incident was a terrorist attack, which appeared to begin with a report by Fox News that said "high-level police sources" told the outlet that the crash was "an attempted terrorist attack." The report was quickly spread by prominent commentators and politicians, although officials later dismissed the theory, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who said in a statement Wednesday evening, "At this time, there is no indication of a terrorist attack."

One of the figures who spread Fox News' report was Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, who reposted to his personal account on X, formerly Twitter, a report by conservative commentator Benny Johnson about the alleged "attempted terrorist attack."

"This confirms our worst fear: the explosion at Rainbow Bridge was a terrorist attack. Both attackers are dead, and one law enforcement officer is injured," read Cruz's post. "I am praying that officer makes a full recovery and is able to spend Thanksgiving surrounded by family and loved ones."

Cruz's post was later criticized by Democrats, who bashed the GOP senator for keeping his post up even after Fox News' report was found to be false.

Newsweek reached out to Cruz's office via email for comment Thursday evening.

"Ted Cruz refuses to delete this long debunked notion that the Rainbow Bridge incident was a terrorist attack," wrote X user Brooklyn Dad Defiant, an avid supporter of President Joe Biden. "What can we expect from the guy who let trump diss his wife and his father before bending the knee. Pathetic."

"Ted Cruz tells us it's too soon to talk about the causes of gun violence in the aftermath of every mass shooting tragedy, but he didn't hesitate to rashly and wrongly tweet that America was under attack by terrorists earlier today," said Shannon Watts, gun violence prevention activist and founder of the group Moms Demand Action. "And his tweet is still up 11 hours later."

Former NBCUniversal Producer Mike Sington also shared a screenshot of Cruz's post, calling the senator's comments "irresponsible."

"Ted Cruz, a United States Senator, declares a terrorist attack, when there was no terrorist attack," Sington wrote on X.

Lindy Li, political commentator and delegate to Biden, also criticized Cruz on X for his prominent role in spreading former President Donald Trump's baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Cruz was one of the leading Republicans calling for investigations into claims of voter fraud after Trump lost to Biden.

"Ted Cruz falsely claimed the Rainbow Bridge accident was a terrorist attack," Li wrote to X. "And that the attack on Pelosi was a gay lovers tryst. And that the election was stolen. And that doors can stop massacres."

"Explain it like I'm 5 cuz I don't get it," she continued. "Why is this douchebag still a Senator?"

As of Thursday evening, Cruz's post about the incident on Rainbow Bridge was still online. Users on X also added context to the post through the platform's Community Notes feature, which pointed to a report by ABC News that rebuffed claims of the explosion being linked to terrorism.

"This was not a terrorist attack," read the Community Notes. "It is being investigated as a traffic incident. This was known at the time this X post was sent."

The senator posted at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday. Confirmation that the incident at Rainbow Bridge was not a terrorist threat was first made by officials Wednesday evening. Fox News also later changed its reporting, saying that one of its reporters "was told by sources that the explosion was so big and fierce, that authorities first thought it was a terrorist attack."