TRUTH TEST: TV ad attacking Teirab earns an ‘F’
Republican Joe Teirab makes his experience as a criminal prosecutor the centerpiece of his campaign in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.
The campaign of Democratic incumbent Angie Craig challenges that in a new ad attacking Teirab as soft on crime, specifically on drug offenders and child abusers.
“We’re facing a fentanyl epidemic,” says a man identified as “Tom” from Hastings, MN. “I know because I lost my son to it. So it burns me up when a weak prosecutor like Joe Teirab lets a convicted felon off easy. And he’s back out on the street dealing his poison… and then that same person gets arrested again for dealing fentanyl.”
It is true that the man’s son died after buying a counterfeit pill online and died of fentanyl poisoning in 2020.
The ad leaves the impression that Teirab was the prosecutor in that case involving the man who sold the counterfeit drug that led to his son’s death. That is not true.
What is true is that a man in another case Teirab was involved in, which is cited in the ad in a news story on the “Southern Minnesota News” website, accepted a plea deal to testify against one of the leaders of a drug ring.
According to Teirab, that drug ring leader was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in prison largely on the basis of the other man’s testimony.
Teirab was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Minnesota from 2019 to 2023. Prior to that he served as an assistant county attorney in Nicollet County from 2017 to 2019. During that time the Craig campaign says Teirab was involved in reaching plea deals with people accused of child abuse. The ad doesn’t cite any examples.
The Craig campaign sent the following document on Monday night, with more context on the claims made in the ad.
Because this ad includes so much misleading, out-of-context and missing information, it gets an “F” on the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS “Truth Test.”
View the Truth Test archives HERE.
- An “A” requires nearly complete accuracy with little exaggeration and little or no need for more context.
- A “B” requires mostly accurate information, but gets marked down for minor exaggerations or misleading information.
- A “C” can be the result of inaccurate information or exaggerated information that misleads or gives the viewer no context.
- A “D” is the result of at least half the information being false or misleading to the point of leaving a false impression.
- An “F” is the result of more than half the information being outright false or misleading or out of context.