Amid growing outrage over comments he made blaming Black Americans for Texas’ surging coronavirus case counts, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Friday blamed “Democrat social media trolls” for the backlash. Speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News Thursday night, Patrick said, “The COVID is spreading, and most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated. Democrats like to blame Republicans on that. Well, the biggest group in most states are African-Americans who have not been vaccinated. The last time I checked, over 90 percent of them voted for Democrats.” The claim is not true: the numbers of unvaccinated white Americans dwarf those of unvaccinated Black Americans. In a statement issued the next day, Patrick attempted to shift the focus from his initial remark on the “biggest group” to rates of vaccination: “Democrat social media trolls were up late misstating the facts and fanning the flames of their lies. Federal and state data clearly indicated that Black vaccination rates are significantly lower than white or Hispanic rates.”