Sen. Ted Cruz’s Twitter account had “liked” a pornographic Twitter post. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Ted Cruz blames staffer for 'liking' porn tweet

Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday that a staff member of his was responsible for "liking" a pornographic Twitter post with the Texas lawmaker's account, chalking up the social media snafu to a "mistake."

"There are a number of people on the team who have access on the account. It appears that someone inadvertently hit the like button. When we discovered the post, which was I guess an hour or two later, we pulled it down," Cruz (R-Texas) said of the incident. "It was a staffing issue. And it was inadvertent, it was a mistake. It was not a deliberate act. We're dealing with it internally, but it was a mistake. It was not malicious."


Cruz told reporters Tuesday that it was "still being discussed" whether the staff member in question would retain access to the senator's social media account.

Earlier Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Cruz announced via her own Twitter account that the "like" had been undone and that the post had been reported to Twitter.

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“The offensive tweet posted on @tedcruz account earlier has been removed by staff and reported to Twitter,” Catherine Frazier, Cruz’s senior communications adviser, wrote on her Twitter account at 2:16 a.m. Tuesday morning.

On Twitter, users can "like" posts by clicking on a heart beneath them, which causes those posts to populate on the user's profile under the "liked" section. The pornographic post in question had initially been shared by an account using the handle @SexuallPosts, and screen shots of the post from Cruz's page show a graphic sexual video.

Although the “like” has since been undone, screen shots of the post have circulated widely online and @SexuallPosts updated its bio to urge users to “follow the same porn @TedCruz watches.”



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