Fox News Fact-Checks Ted Cruz Right to His Face

Hell froze over on Wednesday when Fox News anchor John Roberts actually fact-checked Sen. Ted Cruz's false claim about U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland calling parents "domestic terrorists." Cruz was on the show to react to the Virginia gubernatorial election, which saw Republican Glenn Youngkin defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe, and he said the GOP victory is indicative of "parents having influence and control over what their kids are taught," including "Critical Race Theory," a body of legal scholarship taught in some law schools (but not elementary, middle, or high schools).

"The arrogance of the Democrats saying 'parents have no control over that,' and even worse, the attorney general — Joe Biden's attorney general — calling those parents domestic terrorists," said the Republican senator. "I think that directly led to the result last night."

But America Reports anchor John Roberts wouldn't let Cruz get away with such a bald-faced lie. "In fairness, he said that they weren't domestic terrorists. It was the National School Boards Association that said that," said Roberts.

Cruz ignored the fact-check and continued to rant about President Biden, Garland, and the Democratic Party, but clearly, he knew he got caught: as HuffPost reports, shortly after the interview, Cruz tweeted a clip of his appearance that contained his false claim about Garland, but not Roberts' correction.

LISTEN: @tedcruz joins LIVE on set to discuss how the Republican party will keep the momentum going for the 2022 midterm elections #AmericaReports pic.twitter.com/dpSPBQjtyc

— America Reports (@AmericaRpts) November 3, 2021

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.