Fact Check

Ted Cruz: I Will Endorse Donald Trump for President If He Makes Masturbation Illegal

A fake news article reported that Ted Cruz said he would endorse Donald Trump if the latter promised to make masturbation illegal.

Published July 15, 2016

 (Flickr)
Image Via Flickr
Claim:
Ted Cruz said that he would endorse Donald Trump if the latter promised to make masturbation illegal.

On 14 July 2016, social media users shared links reporting that Ted Cruz said he would endorse Donald Trump for president if the latter promised to make masturbation illegal:

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent shockwaves through the Republican Party today when he announced that he would endorse Donald Trump for President, but only if the GOP nominee would be willing to publicly support a ban on masturbation. The Senator called this ‘The single most important issue facing the country today’ and that without ‘swift action by the next President the country was doomed to slide down a slippery slope of debauchery and self-satisfaction’.

There is no truth to this story, which originated with a fake news web site that employs trademarks illegally appropriated from a legitimate news organization (ABC News) in order to lure readers into clicking through to the underlying malware site and generate advertising revenue.

In June 2016, Cruz said that he wasn't sure when (or if) he would offer his endorsement to Donald Trump:

In an interview on Capitol Hill with MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson, Cruz wouldn’t offer a timeline on when he’ll make a decision on whether or not to support the GOP nominee, offering only that he was “giving it time, watching and assessing.”
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“I, like many other voters am watching and listening what he says and what he does,” Cruz said. “That's what millions of voters are doing. That's the way the democratic process is meant to operate.”

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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