It’s April Fool’s Day, more conventionally known as the worst day to be a political reporter in Washington. Here’s a roundup of how politicians and others in government are trying to fool the press.
1. Ted Cruz rickrolls America (or people who follow him on Twitter).
Happy to hear @realDonaldTrump accepted my challenge to debate one-on-one: https://t.co/mikc6fXZei
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 1, 2016
On the one hand, this took a decent amount of effort and was grounded in Cruz’s repeated entreaties for a one-on-one debate with Donald Trump.
On the other hand, it’s not 2008 anymore.
…entropy.
Yes Twitter, I am just celebrating #AprilFools #endorsingentropy.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) April 1, 2016
Paul set this one up yesterday, promising a “YUGE” endorsement — which everyone immediately saw through. Then he didn’t even follow it with an I’m-endorsing-Trump-April-Fool’s, but told us first it was April Fool’s Day, and then gave his endorsement — of “entropy.” A win for the thermodynamics fans, and a fresh round of Googling for the rest.
Another definition of entropy, for the record, is “a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder.”
3. John Kasich campaign: “We just got word that Trump/Cruz can defeat Hillary Clinton!”
…”April Fools!!”
4. U.S. Air Forces Central Command’s new A-10 replacement
BREAKING: AFCENT unveils A-10 replacement platform!#A10#AFCENT
Happy April Fools Day! pic.twitter.com/cg6uNRak2k— US AFCENT (@USAFCENT) April 1, 2016
An X-wing starfighter! Note: No snark here.
5. Army: “BREAKING: Army scientists successfully ‘teleport’ Soldiers”
NATICK, Mass. (April 1, 2016) — Army scientists have successfully “teleported” a fully equipped squad from a Massachusetts research and development facility to a training area in Germany, the Natick Soldier Systems Center (NSSC) announced today.
[…]
[A] device not unlike the “flux capacitor” seen in the “Back to the Future” movie series was employed during the experiment. This led to immediate speculation that the Army was also working on time travel, but time travel requirements of generating 1.21 gigawatts is no trivial feat.
6. Florida Republican Party: “Hillary Clinton tells the truth!”
BREAKING NEWS: @HillaryClinton tells the truth! #sayfie pic.twitter.com/XRJ7PtgzSU
— Florida GOP (@FloridaGOP) April 1, 2016
BREAKING NEWS.
7. House Natural Resources Committee
Committee Releases Legislation to Protect Pacific Northwest Indigenous Species, Bigfoot → https://t.co/OtMhpKiLkI pic.twitter.com/6GGwte8jW2
— Natural Resources (@NatResources) April 1, 2016
This is surely just a partial list, tweet us @dcexaminer any others you come across throughout the day.
