Twitter Users Rib Ted Cruz For Joking Beto O'Rourke Will Ban BBQ

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) must be getting desperate in his re-election bid for the Senate.

Now he’s even falsely claiming his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, wants to ban Texans from barbecuing.

The senator made the comments at a Saturday rally in Columbus after PETA showed up hoping to gather bipartisan support for Texas tofu since soybeans are a big cash crop for the state’s farmers.

However, Cruz decided PETA’s presence was adversarial and falsely claimed that O’Rourke’s election would lead to barbecue bans across the state to the crowd.

“When I got here someone told me that even PETA was protesting and giving out barbecued tofu, so I got to say, they summed up the entire election: If Texas elects a Democrat, they’re going to ban barbecue across the state of Texas,” Cruz said, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

He doubled down on the unproven allegation Sunday on Twitter.

Although the laughing-till-I-cry emojis in the tweet were apparently supposed to signify the senator was joking when he claimed O’Rourke would ban barbecue, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier admits she had lots of press inquiries from reporters wanting clarity.

Joking or not, many Twitter users definitely had a beef with Cruz’s attempt at a rib tickler.

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It’s the latest false food claim Cruz has made against O’Rourke. Earlier this month, Cruz told a crowd at a campaign rally that Democrats are raising “millions of dollars” to transform Texas into California with its “tofu, silicon and dyed hair.”

Some people felt that a guy who would make false claims about his opponent’s feelings of barbecue might also be unscrupulous enough to raise funds by sending voters envelopes designed to look like court summonses ― which Cruz did, according to CBS News.

One woman pointed out that every second Cruz spent on fake barbecue bans was one where he wouldn’t offer ideas or solutions on real issues affecting voters.

One guy decided to give Cruz props for the joke, but not his vote.

Cruz currently leads O’Rourke by 9 percentage points, according to CNBC.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.