Anti-porn crusader Ted Cruz blames staffer for ‘liking’ hardcore link on Twitter

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s official political Twitter account liked a tweet linking to a pornographic video.

The video link came from the account @SexuallPosts, which shares NSFW material. The video depicts a woman returning home to the surprise scene of a man and woman having sex on her couch. She decides to look on while masturbating.

@SexuallPosts has updated its bio to read: “Follow for the Same Porn @TedCruz Watches.”

Ted Cruz told the Washington Post that a “staffing issue” led to the porn link gaffe. Cruz did not name the staffer or say how he or she would be disciplined.

Reporters asked Cruz at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday morning if he, in fact, was behind the porn-link like.

“No,” Cruz said, according to the Post.

Cruz’s account eventually unliked the tweet, but the damage was done. The Texas Republican, unfairly or not, became the butt of thousands of jokes as his name trended on Twitter early Tuesday.

The possibility that Cruz liked the tweet made many point out his past anti-porn stances.

As Texas solicitor general, Cruz argued in 2007 in favor of a law that banned sex toys in adult stores.

“There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship,” he wrote.

His freshman roommate at Princeton, Craig Mazin, often tweets about the year he shared a room with the then-future senator.

During his failed bid for the Republican nomination for president last year, Cruz’s team chose to pull an ad upon learning an actress in it had earlier appeared in pornographic movies, the New York Times reported.

His spokeswoman, Catherine Frazier, tweeted that the “offensive tweet” was removed by staff and reported to Twitter.

This story was originally published September 12, 2017 at 8:39 AM with the headline "Anti-porn crusader Ted Cruz blames staffer for ‘liking’ hardcore link on Twitter."