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Miriam Valverde
By Miriam Valverde September 14, 2018

Hannity: Beto O'Rourke asked for help getting undocumented immigrants' votes (O'Rourke didn't ask)

A website called joemygod.com claimed that Sean Hannity told his radio audience that Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke asked for help getting immigrants in the country illegally to the polls so they could vote.

It is true that Hannity said that. What is not true is that O’Rourke is asking for that help.

O’Rourke is seeking to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. He’s challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. The election is Nov. 6.

"Hannity tells radio audience that Beto O’Rourke is asking for help in getting undocumented to vote," said a Sept. 7 post on joemygod.com. The website includes posts about politics, LGBT news and entertainment. The site’s Twitter account has more than 68,000 followers.

Joemygod.com’s story was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

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The story accurately reflects what Hannity said on his Sept. 7 radio show.

The conservative pundit said: "A text message was sent out by a Democratic Senate hopeful down, where is this, in Texas. With this guy, what’s his name — O’Rourke, everybody loves so much, Beto O’Rourke is the guy’s name. Locked in a tight race, they say, with Ted Cruz — I think Ted Cruz will win."

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Hannity adds that Cruz has been "an enormous help" and a reliable senator for President Donald Trump.

"Anyway, O’Rourke’s race, it goes on to say, ‘we are in search of volunteers to help transport undocumented immigrants to polling booths.’ They’re doing that in Texas. I’m not making it up, it was in the Austin American-Statesman," Hannity said.

What Hannity failed to mention is that O’Rourke’s campaign said the text message "was sent by an impostor," and not by O’Rourke or his team, according to an American-Statesman Sept. 5 story. The Austin American-Statesman publishes PolitiFact Texas.

The joemygod.com story is accurate. We rate it True.

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"Hannity tells radio audience that Beto O’Rourke is asking for help in getting undocumented to vote."
in a blog post
Friday, September 7, 2018
 
Editor's note: We revised the ruling statement of this fact-check Sept. 18 in effort to make the focus of this fact-check (which is that Hannity told his listeners inaccurate information) more clear. No other changes were made.

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More by Miriam Valverde

Hannity: Beto O'Rourke asked for help getting undocumented immigrants' votes (O'Rourke didn't ask)

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