No, Congress didn’t ‘erupt’ when Sen. Ted Cruz made these comments

Shouting and jeering may be common in the British Parliament, but less so in the U.S. Congress. It would be unusual for American lawmakers to howl at something their colleague said on the House or Senate floor. 

And yet, that’s what a recent Facebook post suggests happened. 

"Congress ERUPTS as Ted Cruz UNLEASHES Hell on AG Merrick Garland," a description of a video in a Jan. 29 Facebook post says. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.)

Reasonable minds can disagree on what, exactly, "unleashing hell" on someone looks like, but anyone excited to see Congress erupting should save themselves 13 minutes and skip the video. 

It’s a compilation of three clips. 

The first, from October 2021, shows Cruz testily questioning Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz is forceful — he "grills" Garland, according to a press release from Cruz’ office — but it elicits no Congressional eruption. 

Featured Fact-check

X posts

stated on October 22, 2024 in posts on X

A photo shows The Atlantic published a story headlined “Trump is Literally Hitler.”

The second clip shows Cruz delivering a Senate floor speech on Jan. 6, 2021, before protesters breached the U.S. Capitol. In it, Cruz questioned the 2020 presidential election’s results. But no eruption, and no Garland.

The third clip shows Cruz questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray during a Senate Judiciary hearing in August. Again, no eruption and no Garland. 

We rate this post False.