WATCH: Ted Cruz Falsely Claims Biden Wants To ‘Give Crack Pipes To Minorities To Destroy Minority Communities’

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) amplified and embellished a false and debunked claim, telling his viewers that President Joe Biden “Wants to give crack pipes to minorities to destroy minority communities.”

On the most recent edition of Verdict with Ted Cruz, the podcast co-hosted by Cruz and Michael Knowles, Knowles read a question from a viewer, then prompted Cruz to talk about the “crack pipe” smear.

KNOWLES: Says “What is Ted Cruz’s view regarding the legality of illicit drugs? Love the show. I’ve been a fan from episode one.”

And it ties into the news because Joe Biden might not be able to give us very much in this economy, but he is promising to give out free crack pipes, so it’s a topic at the top of people’s minds.

CRUZ: It’s a great question, but let me start, Michael, how is that not a headline for the Babylon Bee? It literally is the case that the Biden administration is giving out free crack pipe because this will be good for America if everyone’s smoking crack. You know, talk about a great crime policy, as many people on crack as possible. These are your Democrats.

KNOWLES: He actually went further. He said that crack pipes were important for racial equity, which seems extremely offensive to me to say that, but.

CRUZ: So not only extremely offensive. If you were to come up with a conspiracy theory, this would usually be attributed to Republicans. If you were to say “racist” and the the media conspiracy theorists always claim them to be Republicans. The CIA so this is another one. “The CIA wants to give crack pipes to minorities to destroy minority communities.”

That sounds like a conspiracy theory, except Biden is saying that’s what he wants to do. It’s like, Holy crap, you want to fight for minority communities, get the kids off crack. Don’t give them crack pipes. All right.

KNOWLES: That’s a good rule of thumb. Get get the kids off crack. Yes, reasonable people can disagree on lots of questions here, but I think we can all agree. Don’t give the kids crack pipes.

CRUZ: Not a great idea.

KNOWLES: Just say no.

CRUZ: Just say no.

Pretty much none of what Cruz and Knowles said is true. The explanation is lengthy, but basically, a Department of Health and Human Services grant program funds “safe smoking kits” that are designed to save lives — not harm communities — and those kits typically contain glass pipes. But in response to outrage from conservative media, HHS and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki clarified that these kits would not contain glass pipes.

And for some strange reason, the outraged parties focused on “crack pipes” and ignored glass pipes that are used to smoke methamphetamine, while also falsely claiming that the stated purpose of the “crack pipes” was “advancing racial equity.”

In other words, Senator Cruz tried to paint President Biden as racist by using a clearly racialized and utterly false smear, while also spreading misinformation about harm reduction strategies that save lives.

Watch above via Ted Cruz.

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