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Liberty students faced choice: See Ted Cruz or face $10 fine

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with his wife and daughters at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Student attendance was mandatory. (New York Times) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with his wife and daughters at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Student attendance was mandatory. (New York Times)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with his wife and daughters at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. Student attendance was mandatory. (New York Times)

Jon Greenberg
By Jon Greenberg March 25, 2015

Every politician likes a packed house, and when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced that he was officially running for president this week, he got one. About 11,000 students at Liberty University in Virginia were on hand when Cruz came to their campus. But as Jess McIntosh, the spokeswoman for the abortion rights group Emily’s List noted, they weren’t there necessarily by choice.

"Students were mandated to be in attendance or they would be fined," McIntosh told Chris Hayes on MSNBC on March 24, 2015. "Not as much as they would be fined for possessing R-rated movies or practicing witchcraft, but still, they had to pay money if they didn’t want to see him."

McIntosh wasn’t the only person to make this point, and a reader asked us to see what was up at Liberty University.

In this case, McIntosh gets an A for accuracy, although there was no special rule related to Cruz.

Read why here.

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Liberty students faced choice: See Ted Cruz or face $10 fine