No, Ted Cruz didn’t tweet he’d believe in climate change when Texas freezes over

As ice and snow storms crippled Texas, old tweets returned to haunt the state’s junior senator, Republican Ted Cruz. 

First it was Cruz’s August tweet criticizing California for asking residents there to conserve energy — something that was recently requested of Texas residents amid prolonged power outages. 

Then it was his December tweet calling Austin Mayor Steve Adler a hypocrite for flying to Cabo but telling his constituents to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Cruz detractors wielded his words against him after learning he flew to Cancun on Feb. 17 while hundreds of thousands of Texans struggled without power and water.

But a third tweet now circulating on social media doesn’t appear to be authentic. 

"I’ll believe in climate change when Texas freezes over," reads what looks like a screenshot of a Sept. 8, 2016 tweet from Cruz.

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Threads posts

stated on November 20, 2024 in a Threads post

“Texas just gifted Trump 355,000 acres for deportation camps.”

The tweet doesn’t appear in either of Cruz’s accounts, @tedcruz or @SenTedCruz. 

We also didn’t find it in Politwoops, a database of tweets deleted by public officials and political candidates that’s run by ProPublica.

Searching for the quote online, we found a meme of Cruz with the words in the tweet appearing over an image of his face — and the word "satire" in the corner — but nothing credibly linking the senator to that statement.

Cruz has disputed the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change exists. In 2015, for example, he said satellite data showed "there has been no significant global warming for the past 18 years." During an NPR interview that year, he said "climate change is the perfect pseudoscientific theory for a big government politician who wants more power."

In 2018, as he defended his Senate seat against a challenge from then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Cruz said, "the climate has been changing from the dawn of time."

But we couldn’t find anything to corroborate this tweet about climate change and Texas freezing over. 

We rate this post False.