Troll Game Strong: Ted Cruz Gets Last Laugh in the Swalwell '#Fartgate' Debate With 'Leaked MSNBC Footage'

By Sister Toldjah | 8:30 PM on November 19, 2019

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Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks as Federal Aviation Administration Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt, and Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel appear before a Senate Transportation subcommittee hearing on commercial airline safety, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in Washington. Two recent Boeing 737 MAX crashes, in Ethiopia and Indonesia, which killed nearly 350 people, have lead to the temporary grounding of models of the aircraft and to increased scrutiny of the FAA's delegation of a number of aspects of the certification process to the aircraft manufacturers themselves. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Though Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has trolled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the past, this week it was Cruz who got the last laugh.

As Bonchie wrote last night, a widely-circulated video clip appeared to show Swalwell breaking wind in the middle of a live interview during Monday’s “Hardball” program on MSNBC.

To quickly recap, Swalwell was talking with host Chris Matthews about the ~~clown show~~ impeachment inquiry hearings currently underway on Capitol Hill when an odd ripping sound could be heard during a portion of the segment. Watch:

Eric Swalwell appears to drop a massive fart during live on television

Turn the sound on, this is real pic.twitter.com/DyElNSwYog

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 19, 2019

A Buzzfeed journalist texted Swalwell not long after the wind – er, story broke, asking if it was him. The congressman said it wasn’t but nevertheless claimed he thought it was funny.

Several hours later, Swalwell tweeted that he was “exonerated” after MSNBC ran interference for him, alleging it was a Hardball mug “scraping across the desk” and not Swalwell nor Matthews who cut loose:

TOTAL EXONERATION! https://t.co/JAuTsnCjAC

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) November 19, 2019

Not so fast, said Cruz, tweeting out a famous clip of Steve Martin from 1988’s “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”:

Leaked footage of Swalwell on MSNBC last night… pic.twitter.com/PzT1ka1c14

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 19, 2019

There were a few humorless (liberal) scolds who took issue with Cruz sharing the video, but for the rest of us it provided a much-needed humor break. That it happened at the expense of a self-important jerk like Swalwell was like a double bonus.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 16+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –