FACT CHECK: Did Pat Toomey Send This Tweet About Why He Voted No On A Recent Veterans Bill?

Christine SellersAugust 2, 2022

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a tweet from Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey in which he explains that he voted no on a recent veterans bill to avoid giving “radical President Joe Biden a win.”

Verdict: False

The image is digitally fabricated. A spokesperson for Toomey denied the senator made such a comment.

Fact Check:

Toomey was one of 14 Republican senators who voted against the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (PACT) Act, a bill created to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, earlier this summer, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Toomey claims his opposition was based on a “budget gimmick” in the bill and said he would support it if this point was addressed, Politico reported.

An image shared on Facebook appears to show a tweet from Toomey’s verified Twitter account about the bill. “As much as it pains me, almost to tears, I cannot vote for the Veteran Support Bill proposed in the U.S. Senate,” reads the purported tweet. “We simply cannot afford to give radical Joe Biden a win. Veterans may die because of this, but that’s what they signed up for. That’s why this is so hard on me.”

The image is digitally fabricated, however. Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to suggest Toomey made this comment. It does not appear on Toomey’s official website or on any of his verified social media pages. There is likewise no record of the purported tweet on ProPublica’s archive of his deleted tweets. (RELATED: FACT CHECK: Does The US Government Spend Zero Dollars On Homeless Veterans?)

“This is a fake tweet,” said Amy Hasenberg, a spokesperson for Toomey, in an email to Check Your Fact. “At no point, has the Senator said that on Twitter.”

This is not the first time a fake tweet attributed to a politician has gone viral. Check Your Fact recently debunked a viral image that appeared to show a tweet from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about limiting his “number of sexual partners to avoid spreading monkeypox.”