GOP senator on Intel committee falsely tweets US has 30,000 troops in Taiwan. He's off by over 29,000
U.S. Senator John Cornyn, the Republican senior senator from Texas who has served since 2002, on Monday tweeted the U.S. has 30,000 troops in Taiwan, which is false. The U.S. pulled out of Taiwan in 1979. America's current U.S. military presence in that country is reportedly just 30.
Cornyn sits on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees budgets for the civilian and military agencies that comprise the intelligence community, and as such would be expected to know that the 30,000 figure was false.
CNN fact checker Daniel Dale caught the false tweet. He notes it was up for more than 13 hours before being deleted.
Cornyn has caused a bit of an incident with this false Taiwan figure. \n\nPentagon data says the US recently had *30* active duty personnel in Taiwan, not \u201c30,000.\u201d Not clear if Cornyn mistakenly added the 000 or mistakenly pulled from a Wiki page about the situation decades ago.pic.twitter.com/GBtu4BlcD9— Daniel Dale (@Daniel Dale) 1629203249
The tweet appears to be part of Cornyn's attack on President Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Cornyn is very active on social media, frequently tweeting out news reports and his opinions throughout the day.
There\u2019s no question that terrorist organizations will use our withdrawal from Afghanistan as an opportunity to reconstitute themselves and be a threat not only in the region, but to the American homeland. This was an unforced error and a terrible tragedy.https://twitter.com/johncornyn/status/1427405668244463620\u00a0\u2026— Senator John Cornyn (@Senator John Cornyn) 1629155078
The Chinese Communist Party's daily English-language tabloid Global Times used the opportunity to lash out at the U.S. – or mock Cornyn: "If the tweet is correct, it is a military invasion and occupation of China's Taiwan and equivalent to the US declaring war on China."
Cornyn, who in April complained that President Biden was not tweeting enough, was once the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, serving as Majority Whip until 2019.
