A Fox News contributor made up a fake story about a female protester getting trampled to death by Canadian authorities on horseback amid anti-vaccine mandate protests in Ottawa.
“Reports are the woman trampled by a Canadian horse patrol just died at the hospital … #Trudeau #FreedomConvoyCanada,” Fox News contributor Sara Carter tweeted on Friday to her 1.3 million Twitter followers.
Ottawa Police pushed back against the report saying any protester who “fell got up and walked away. We’re unaware of any injuries.”
But, the story about a protester getting trampled to death went viral among conservatives and was further amplified by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who quote-retweeted Carter, writing: “This…is…horrific.”
On Saturday, Carter admitted that the report was false, writing on Twitter: “The Reports I was given earlier yesterday from sources on the ground that someone may have died at a hospital during the trampling was wrong. Someone was taken to a hospital with a heart condition -not due to trampling.I want to clarify this again and apologize for any confusion.”
Carter deleted the original tweet and so did Cruz.
“I deleted my retweet about a Canadian protestor being trampled to death because the journalist who first reported it now says it was in error,” Cruz wrote. “I remain deeply concerned about the abuse—seizing money & employing violence against peaceful protesters—that we’re seeing in Canada.”
