Fact Check

Ted Cruz Erupts in Hooters After Expense-Account Master Card Refused

Did Senator Ted Cruz go into a shouting tirade after a Hooters restaurant refused to accept his government expense account credit card?

Published Oct. 3, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   Senator Ted Cruz went into a shouting tirade after a Hooters restaurant refused to accept his government expense account credit card.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, October 2013]


Did Ted Cruz cause a scene at a restaurant because his expense card was declined?

 

Origins:   On 29 September 2013, the web site The Lapine published an article positing that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas went into a shouting tirade after a Hooters restaurant refused to accept his government expense account credit card as payment for a $53 tab:



Following a live radio interview today, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz and host Rush Limbaugh immediately left the studio and went for lunch at a nearby Hooters but the restaurant refused the Senator's government expense-account credit card and asked that the $53 tab be paid in cash.

That set Senator Cruz off according to media reports.

"He got the hiccups he was so mad," Hooters' assistant manager Kyle Lane told the Washington Post's Ezra Klein.

After shouting at Hooters' waitresses and management for an extended period, Cruz admitted he had no cash and was forced to borrow the money from a FOX News reporter.


Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing

that article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news item. However, the article was just a spoof that originated with The Lapine, a Canadian-based satirical web site. (Clues to the site's nature are that its name is taken from a language spoken by rabbit characters in the novel Watership Down, and that the site's motto is "Rabbits eat Onions.")

Other stories published by The Lapine include "Atheist Suicide Bomber Kills Eighteen Agnostics," "Dalai Lama Spotted Wearing 'Leave Justin Alone' Button," and "Arizona Gun Buyers Offered Free Flag Tattoo."

Last updated:   3 October 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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