Fact check: Altered tweet about nuclear weapons wrongly attributed to CNBC host
The claim: Image shows tweet about Russian nuclear weapons that came from CNBC host Jim Cramer
Speculation that Russia could use nuclear weapons in its war with Ukraine turned more serious after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sept. 30 that his nation would “defend our land with all the forces and resources we have.”
Social media users decided to play off the ensuing wave of punditry. An Instagram user shared a photo on Oct. 2 of what appeared to be a tweet from CNBC host Jim Cramer saying, “It is incredibly unlikely that Russia will use nuclear weapons.”
The post was liked about 4,000 times in four days.
While some other posts on Instagram and Twitter presented similar images as jokes, not everyone labeled it as such. Some commenters on the Oct. 2 Instagram post appeared to think it was authentic.
“Why would I believe this guy on this particular topic?” one user asked.
But the tweet is not from Cramer.
The image was altered to look like it came from Cramer. The tweet did not come from the host, according to a CNBC spokesperson, and no version of the tweet can be found on his Twitter profile.
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Contacted by Paste BN, Chip Slate, who runs Being A Libertarian and its social media accounts, said the image "was found in the wild as is" and posted to Instagram with satirical intent.
Tweet is fabricated
A review of Cramer’s Twitter profile reveals no tweets resembling the one in the Instagram post. A review of an archive of Cramer’s account also showed no such tweet.
“This is not a real tweet from Jim Cramer," a CNBC spokesperson told Paste BN in an emailed statement.
The purported photo of the tweet also lacked the checkmark indicating a verified user, which Cramer’s actual profile has.
Cramer, a former hedge fund manager, hosts a pair of programs on the stock market and investing for CNBC, according to his bio on CNBC.com. He also runs an investment subscription product for the cable network.
Our rating: Altered
Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image purporting to show that a tweet about Russian nuclear weapons came from Cramer. A CNBC spokesperson said the tweet did not come from Cramer, and there is nothing resembling it on his Twitter profile or an archive of it.
Our fact-check sources:
- CNBC spokesperson, Oct. 6, Email exchange with Paste BN
- Jim Cramer, accessed Oct. 6, Twitter profile
- Wayback machine, accessed Oct.6, Archive of Jim Cramer’s Twitter account
- The Brookings Institution, Oct. 4, How to respond to Putin’s land grab and nuclear gambit
- CNBC.com, accessed Oct. 6, Biography of Jim Cramer
- Reuters, Oct. 5, Fact Check-Fabricated Jim Cramer tweet about likelihood of Russia using nuclear weapons
- Chip Slate, Oct. 7, Email exchange with Paste BN
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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.