On Monday night, a ‘like’ of a pornographic post by the official Twitter account of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) became the latest social-media-driven viral political controversy. It wasn’t immediately clear whether it was a hacker, Cruz himself or a staffer with access to the account – which has 3 million followers – that actually liked the post.
Neither Cruz nor his communications staff have responded or acknowledged this viral debacle so far. Heavy has emailed Sen. Cruz spokesperson for comment, but thus far has not heard back.
While his account may have been compromised, hacked or otherwise accessed without his explicit consent – a seemingly commonplace phenomenon on social media with public officials and celebrities – the junior Republican senator from Texas became target of Twitter humor almost instantly.
Oh boy…some poor Social Media intern on the Ted Cruz staff is going to be looking for a job tomorrow…careful with that ‘fav’ button!
Among those who had something snarky to say were Crooked Media founder Jon Favreau – not to be confused with the actor/writer/director Jon Favreau – who couldn’t resist unleashing sarcasm at Cruz.
Actor Zach Braff chimed in as well with a clip from Netflix’ political drama House of Cards. Braff tweet, “Ted Cruz will say it was a rogue staffer but…,” suggests what likely happened.
Other Twitter users acknowledged Cruz’ misfortune in a Saturday Night Live-worthy rhyme.
No doubt Ted Cruz will blame a hacker but we all know he is a whacker.
A tongue-in-cheek tweet from The New Republic‘s senior editor Jeet Heer noted the bad timing of the GOP senator’s viral snafu.
I suppose we all have our own ways of remembering 9/11, but I was taken aback by Ted Cruz’s approach.
Although Cruz’ Twitter account only ‘liked’ the pornographic post and didn’t actually post or retweet it, Twitter user @cmclymer pointed out a previously published Washington Post article that that reported, literally, that “Cruz watched pornography with Supreme Court justices.”
Went to look up Ted Cruz’ past statements on porn and came across this WaPo article from 2015: t.co/XtEXFTKV7c
