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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke May 27, 2022

No, these tweets about Greg Abbott trying to pay off a Uvalde victim’s uncle aren’t accurate

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  • Gov. Greg Abbott has denied claims made in a recent Twitter thread that he offered to pay the uncle of a Uvalde shooting victim to say he doesn’t support stronger gun laws. The Twitter account told a reporter it was hacked. 
 

Replying to a recent Twitter thread, some social media users tagged progressive TV news hosts like Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes to draw their attention to something that seemed truly scandalous. 

Someone claiming to be the uncle of one of the children killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County, Texas, said a representative of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott knocked on his door not long after they returned from identifying his nephew’s body. 

"He informed us he’s willing to pay us to stand with the Gov and say we don’t need stronger gun laws," the tweet from @MyCancerJourne3 said. "He was asked to leave and said that if we speak about this conversation we will be facing charges and possibly worse." 

An Abbott spokesperson denied this happened, telling The Daily Beast that it’s "completely false." The publication also contacted the Twitter account about the claim, and the unidentified person behind it told The Daily Beast that it had been hacked. We couldn’t verify whether that really happened.

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But The Daily Beast and other journalists have noted that this account has made a number of claims in connection with tragic circumstances the past, such as that a sheriff in eastern Washington state killed another nephew, that he needed financial assistance for colon cancer treatments, that he suffered a stroke, was placed in a medically induced coma, received approval for assisted suicide, and that his body was "struggling to accept its new liver."

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The account has also said that he received "the Purple Heart in Afghanistan," where he was shot in the chest, and that he was a "9/11 first responder." 

We rate these tweets about Abbott Pants on Fire!

 

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No, these tweets about Greg Abbott trying to pay off a Uvalde victim’s uncle aren’t accurate

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