Donald Trump Spills the Beans on Ted Cruz’s Wife: She Was a Call Girl-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
After a Twitter feud between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz about each other’s wives, reports have gone viral that Trump “spilled the beans” about Heidi Cruz being a former call girl.
The Truth:
A fake news website is behind the false report that Donald Trump outed Ted Cruz’s wife as a former call girl.
The fake news website, Nevada County Scooper, filed the report under the headline “Donald Trump Bombshell: Ted Cruz’s Wife Former Call Girl.” According to the report:
Waukesha, WI — Some are calling Donald Trump’s recent revelation a low blow and dirty politics. Some are calling it fair play in a very dirty game. This morning via Twitter as promised, Donald Trump spilled the beans about his opponent, Lyin’ Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi. In a Skypeinterview with Donald Trump this morning, The Scooper was able to get some clarification in this new aspect of the Trump, Cruz feud.
“Lyin’ Ted Cruz is married to a former call girl. It’s terrible. So terrible,” stated the Donald. “I mean, Lyin’ Ted Cruz thinks that Americans want a call girl in the White House? It’s terrible. Just terrible,” rambled Mr. Trump.
When asked how came to be in possession of this information, Mr. Trump responded, “It’s terrible. I didn’t want to have to spill the beans. But I warned him (Cruz) not to go down this path. I warned him. It’s terrible. He put out an attack ad about my wife. It’s terrible, terrible. I warned him. But, he wants to play dirty. I know about a lot of skeletons in GOP closets. It’s terrible. That is why the GOP is so very, very afraid of me. They know that I know, and they know that I will say what I know if I have to say what I know. You know? It’s terrible. Just horrible.”
The story was quickly shared nearly 20,000 times on Facebook, and hundreds of people commented on it. Taken out of context, many believed the report to be true, but the Nevada County Scooper’s terms of service reveal that the site is far from a credible news source:
This website is satirical in scope and intent. It provides fake news and social criticism in a satirical setting. If this offends you, you might want to consider doing something else with your time rather than looking at the Internet. Really, the quality of your life will improve dramatically. Our intention is not to fool anyone, but if you do get fooled, don’t sweat it….
The Nevada County Scooper is earning a reputation for spinning multiple factual news reports into fake news stories that are especially deceptive.
In this case, the website played off of multiple Twitter exchanges between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. It started when Trump threatened to “spill the beans” about Ted Cruz’s wife after an anti-Trump super PAC (that was unrelated to Cruz’s campaign) spread scandalous ads about Trump’s wife in Utah.