[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

Cruz himself apparently always referred to himself as an American when crossing

Let's look at the sentence again:

Lubetsky said he remembered one occasion at a border crossing where Cruz identified himself as a dual citizen, "because I pointed him to and said he was a dual citizen."

The "because" is only an explanation of why Cruz identified himself as a dual citizen. This contradicts your assertion that Cruz didn't "notice." Thus, the student's recollection of Cruz is not invalid.

Also, when the student says it was Cruz's "routine" to identify as an American, it does not restrict the meaning to "always," just "usual" or "almost every time" at best.

[John Valentine]

Ahhhh,,, I didn’t realize you were there that day! I should have known.

Also, since I was NOT there, I did not make any assertion as to what Cruz did or did not do or say. So, don’t try to put words in my mouth.

The only assertion that it did make is that this is a matter of ZERO consequence, and that I reassert now.