“Send us your weary — isn’t that what the United States is all about?” asked host Michael Smerconish.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t say send us your terrorists,” Huckabee retorted. “For goodness sake, Michael!”…

Fox’s hosts did not challenge Cruz, but he had mischaracterized Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s thoughts about the refugees — and not for the first time. “I don’t, obviously, put it past the likes of ISIL to infiltrate operatives among these refugees,” Clapper said in September, using an alternative name for the Islamic State. He doubted that every European country was ready to screen the refugees, but insisted that Americans “do have a pretty aggressive program for those coming to this country, for screening their backgrounds.”

Yet in Orlando, it was the Cruz version of the facts that won out. In terms reminiscent of the 2014 panic over the Ebola virus, which led many politicians to demand a travel ban, Republican after Republican suggested that a blundering Obama administration could accidentally let terrorists across the border.