FACT CHECK: Cruz misleads on Obama's ISIS statement

During a speech to evangelical pastors at a conference in Des Moines last week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz accused President Barack Obama of omitting a key detail about brutal murders carried about by the Islamic State, the radical group also known as ISIS and ISIL.

In Obama's response to the beheadings of 21 captured Egyptians, Cruz claimed the president refused to acknowledge that they were Coptic Christians. Cruz also stated that the president said the Egyptians were killed because of their nationality rather than their religion.

We rate this statement MISLEADING.

Although the White House's first response to the beheadings, released within hours of the news breaking, did not include the victims' religion, subsequent statements issued a few days later did. Cruz's audience did not hear the full story when he said Obama described the ISIS victims only as "Egyptian citizens."

CONTEXT

Here's what Cruz told the pastors in Des Moines on Monday:

"When we see ISIS beheading 22 Coptic Christians on their knees having their throats slit, our hearts break when the president of the United States describes that as 22 people murdered because of their Egyptian citizenship. They were not murdered because they were Egyptian citizens; they were murdered because they were Christians believing in the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ."

(Cruz committed a verbal slip here by saying 22 were killed. The actual number was 21.)

The statement was part of an extended critique of what Cruz believes is Obama's refusal to acknowledge the Islamic roots of ISIS's ideology and tactics and of Middle Eastern terrorism generally.

Cruz's campaign staff pointed out a Fox News segment in which conservative newspaper columnists Charles Krauthammer and George Will excoriated Obama's unwillingness to recognize the role of Islam in recent acts of terror and war.

"This goes to the point we often make that this administration is unwilling to speak the truth about the enemy we face," Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier wrote in an email to the Register. "This isn't just violence or general terrorism, it is radical Islamic extremism, and you can't defeat an enemy that you are unwilling to identify."

ANALYSIS

Although it's unclear exactly when the Coptic Christians were killed by an ISIS affiliate in Libya, the news broke on the evening of Feb. 15, with the so-called Islamic State's release of a video depicting the simultaneous beheadings. Several news organizations published stories that night describing the massacre and noting that the victims were Egyptian Coptic Christians.

The first response from the White House was also released on Feb. 15, in a statement from Press Secretary Josh Earnest. Here's what it said, in part:

"The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of 21 Egyptian citizens in Libya by ISIL-affiliated terrorists. We offer our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Egyptian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens. ISIL's barbarity knows no bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity. This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against the people of the region, including the murders of dozens of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai, which only further galvanizes the international community to unite against ISIL."

According to Cruz's spokeswoman, this is the statement he was referring to in his comments to the Iowa pastors. It's true that the statement does not reference the Egyptians' religion. But it doesn't say the men were killed "because of their Egyptian citizenship," as Cruz asserted.

That statement also was not the White House's final word on the matter.

Obama himself noted the Egyptians' religion during a Feb. 19 summit on countering violent extremism:

"As we speak, ISIL is terrorizing the people of Syria and Iraq and engaging in unspeakable cruelty. The wanton murder of children, the enslavement and rape of women, threatening religious minorities with genocide, beheading hostages. ISIL-linked terrorists murdered Egyptians in the Sinai Peninsula, and their slaughter of Egyptian Christians in Libya has shocked the world. Beyond the region, we've seen deadly attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, Paris, and now Copenhagen."

On the same day, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan released a statement on a meeting between National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in which the victims' religion was cited.

"Ambassador Rice reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the strategic partnership with Egypt and offered condolences to the Egyptian government and people on recent terrorist attacks, including the murders of Egyptian security personnel and civilians in the Sinai Peninsula and 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians at the hands of ISIL-affiliated terrorists in Libya," Meehan said in the statement.

Have a statement you want us to investigate? Jason Noble is the Register's Reality Check reporter, and he wants your suggestions. Email him at jnoble2@dmreg.com, tweet him at @jasonnobleDMR or call him at 515-286-2532.

WHAT WE WILL CONSIDER CHECKING

• A fact-based political or policy statement, assertion or argument made within the borders of Iowa by a candidate, officeholder or political organization.
• A fact-based political or policy statement, assertion or argument made by a member of Iowa's congressional delegation.
• A fact-based political or policy statement, assertion or argument regarding the state of Iowa or a matter of importance to Iowa made by an Iowa caucus candidate.
• Opposition research or other information pitched to us by a political organization for coverage as a news story.