If you were in the fight for your career as a Senator — especially as a Republican in traditionally-red Texas, in a position once considered absolutely safe — probably the last thing you would want to do is inadvertently tell your social media followers to vote for the person you’re running against.
But Senator Ted Cruz has proven time and time again that he’s not exactly sure how social media works, or really even the internet for that matter. He doesn’t seem to grasp that video on the internet is forever and so are screenshots. He definitely doesn’t get that people on Twitter can see everything he clicks “like” on — as evidenced by his recent porn tweet debacle:
But what happened to Ted last night kind of takes the cake, in terms of not getting what’s happening to you, mostly because at the time of this writing, the tweet I’m referring to here is still posted.
When you retweet someone else’s tweet, it shows up in your timeline, but not with your name on it — it just shows up with a small “so and so retweeted” above it. That is, unless you add your own commentary to the other person’s tweet. That’s called quote-tweeting, and it makes it show up as a tweet from you, with someone else’s tweet embedded in your own.
The problem for Ted is, quote-tweeting someone isn’t like finding a picture you like and re-posting it. All tweets are dynamic posts — when the embedded tweet you promoted gets more likes, people will see it, and if the person who originally tweeted it changes something significant about their account — like, say, their screen name — it will suddenly look like you quote-tweeted someone with that new screen name.
Ladies and gents, Ted Cruz:
Wow. Wild. https://t.co/VMk8qM1UKO
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 11, 2018
Now, in case your browser doesn’t want to show it with the embedded tweet visible as it would appear on Twitter, or in case — Heaven forfend! — Ted has figured it out finally, here’s a screen capture of Ted retweeting a guy who then changed his screen name to promote Ted’s opponent Beto O’Rourke in the upcoming midterm election:
Classic Ted. And it’s not like anyone was quiet about it. If Ted bothered to check back in on it at all he would see what he had done wrong:
If ted cruz is your nightmare then yes. He will devour cruz in November.
— VIVA LA RESISTANCE! (@SaveTheGVMT) August 11, 2018
Thank you @JasonKirell I see what u did there🙌🏻 #BetoForTexas
— Cathy Holland (@cathymholland) August 11, 2018
Even Ted Cruz is on #TeamBeto
— DeeVee (@Deserrama) August 11, 2018
And some people took it as an opportunity for serious campaigning for their candidate, Beto:
While Beto O’Rourke is crisscrossing Texas listening and speaking with tens of thousands of Texans, Ted Cruz is watching fish eat bugs.
Pay attention Texas. You have exactly one serious candidate for senator.
VOTE Beto.#87DaysOut#NovemberIsComing #BetoForTexas#FBR
— Progressive Patriot (@rowdyridger) August 11, 2018
Shh!! Nobody tell Ted Cruz what he’s done here. We really want to see how long he leaves this up.
Featured image via screen capture
