Fact check: Video shows committee hearings, not Ted Cruz saying 'lock him up' about Fauci
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The claim: Video shows Ted Cruz saying Anthony Fauci committed perjury and should be locked up
Throughout the pandemic, some Republican members of Congress have criticized White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci's response to the spread of COVID-19.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was among those critical of Fauci's response. A video circulating online claims to show Cruz saying Fauci should be locked up. One March 23 Facebook post shows the purported video.
Before it was deleted, a recent version of the video accrued more than 10,000 views in a day.
"'FAUCI HAS COMMITTED PERJURY, LOCK HIM UP!' Ted Cruz EXPLODES On Biden's Attorney General," reads the caption of the post.
But the claim is false. This video shows three different clips merged together, none of which show Cruz saying Fauci committed perjury and should be locked up.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
Video shows committee hearings
Cruz does not say Fauci "committed perjury" or that he should be locked up at any point in the more than 18-minute video shared on Facebook.
While the video features three different clips merged together, Cruz is only visible in one of the three clips. Fauci is not featured at all, though he is mentioned.
The first clip shows Cruz questioning Attorney General Merrick Garland at an October 2021 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
In the video clip, Cruz asks Garland if the Justice Department is investigating Fauci for lying to Congress. At no point in the clip does he use the word perjury or the phrase "lock him up," as the video caption asserts.
The second clip shows Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., questioning Garland at an October 2021 House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. Biggs suggests Fauci may have committed perjury, but Cruz is nowhere in this clip.
Neither Cruz nor Fauci is mentioned in the third video clip. This clip is from a March 2021 Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Justice Department nominees. In the clip, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., questions Vanita Gupta, who at the time was a nominee for associate attorney general.
Fact check: Detroit polling precincts faced a 'harmless data error,' city officials say
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a video shows Cruz saying Fauci committed perjury and should be locked up. The video is miscaptioned. It shows three different clips merged together, none of which show Cruz saying Fauci committed perjury or that he should be locked up.
Our fact-check sources:
CSPAN, March 9, 2021, Deputy Attorney General and Associate Attorney General Confirmation Hearing
CSPAN, Oct. 21, 2021, Justice Department Oversight Hearing
Senate.gov, Oct. 27, 2021, Sen. Cruz Grills AG Garland: ‘Apparently Ethics Are Not A Terribly High Priority In The Biden Justice Department’
Business Insider, Dec. 1, 2021, Ted Cruz called Dr Fauci 'the most dangerous bureaucrat' after the healthcare expert said he represented science
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Video miscaptions Ted Cruz remarks
