FACT CHECK: Does This Video Show Ted Cruz Swallowing A Fly On Fox News?

A video shared on Facebook purportedly shows Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz swallowing a fly during a Fox News interview.

Verdict: False

The insect has been digitally added to the clip. In the original video, no bug is visible during the interview.

Fact Check:

The video of the Texas senator allegedly swallowing a fly has been circulating widely on both Facebook and Instagram. One Facebook user who shared the video wrote, “In case you missed Ted Cruz eating a fly on Fox News……TOAD CRUZ,” while an Instagram user commented, “Remember that fly on Pence’s head? Well Ted Cruz ate it last night.”

The insect has been digitally added to the video, a Check Your Fact review of the original footage found. The unaltered video, which depicts Cruz appearing on the Fox News show “Hannity” in June 2019, can be seen on the senator’s YouTube channel.

During one point in the interview, Cruz’s voice cracks when he starts to speak, and then he coughs and drinks from a water bottle, the video shows. There is no insect visible at any point in the original video.

“Take a sip of water,” Fox News host Sean Hannity says to Cruz in the video. “By the way, that’s your Marco Rubio moment, just in case you didn’t know.” (RELATED: Did Ted Cruz Tweet, ‘I’ll Believe In Climate Change When Texas Freezes Over’?)

Hannity appeared to be referencing a moment from the official Republican response to then-President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in 2013. During that GOP rebuttal speech, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio paused to take a sip of water, video shows.

The altered clip of Cruz also went viral on Twitter Thursday, where some people appeared to mistakenly believe it was real. Verified Twitter users such as filmmaker Jeremy Newberger and AMERICAblog creator John Aravosis shared versions of it.

It was previously posted on the Reddit thread r/PoliticalHumor in 2020, according to Newsweek.