Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to X this week to claim that President Joe Biden "took days ... to say the U.S. stands with Israel" after Hamas struck the country and slaughtered hundreds of civilians, and that "it's important for Americans to understand why it took him that long ... the Democrats are beholden to Israel-hating leftist activists."
There's just one problem, which a Community Note was quick to point out: Biden offered his support to Israel immediately after the attack, both in a press conference and a post on X. Indeed, Israeli officials and civilians have been quick to praise the U.S. president's response, and even David Friedman, the Trump administration's former ambassador to Israel, lauded Biden's actions and words in the wake of the attack.
Cruz, however, was unhappy about the fact-check — and doubled down, claiming in followup X posts that technically he was right because Biden didn't use his exact preferred word choice when he offered his support for Israel.
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"The community note is FALSE. Biden said (in the article cited) 'I made clear to PM Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support….'" wrote Cruz. "'ALL APPROPRIATE MEANS OF SUPPORT' is not 'America stands with Israel. Period. Full stop.'"
"Nice try, fact-checkers, but the facts aren't on your side for this one," Cruz continued. "On 10/7, the U.S. State Department called on Israel to refrain from retaliating against the terrorists who were beheading babies and shooting concert attendees. On 10/8, Secretary Blinken called for a ceasefire and demanded that Israel refrain from self-defense. The Biden administration's lack of support for Israel is disturbing. BOTH statements were deleted after I called them out as outrageous."
Even by Cruz's own standards, however, he's still wrong. As one of Cruz's own followers on the platform pointed out to him earlier in the day, Biden used the exact words, "Let there be no mistake, the United States stands with the state of Israel," in a speech delivered on October 7, just hours after the attack happened.
