‘Sound and Fury’: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell Botches Fact Check of Ted Cruz Quoting Shakespeare

Mitchell
(Screenshot/MSNBC)
Ashley Oliver

NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell incorrectly accused Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) of misquoting William Shakespeare on Wednesday in a fact check attempt that brutally backfired once Internet users picked up on her error.

Mitchell, a journalist at NBC for four decades who carries an English literature degree from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, wrote to her 1.9 million Twitter followers that Cruz was quoting William Faulkner, not Shakespeare.

“.@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner,” she wrote.

Cruz had appeared on America’s Newsroom earlier Wednesday to discuss the Senate impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump. “It is reminiscent of Shakespeare, that it is full of sound and fury and yet signifying nothing,” he had said, employing a quote from Macbeth, a tragedy by Shakespeare, perhaps the most famous playwright in history.

The veteran journalist had to apologize upon realizing her error, adding in a follow-up tweet, “I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz”:

Faulkner, a well-known American writer, authored the highly regarded 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury.

Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin, a self-proclaimed Never Trumper who has been aggressively advocating for the former president’s impeachment conviction, further perpetuated the erroneous tweet, responding to Mitchell, “and it says volumes about his lack of soul. That’s Any Thinking Person”:

Cruz was quick to defend himself against Mitchell’s failed fact check, writing, “Methinks she doth protest too much. One would think NBC would know the Bard”:

He also replied to Rubin, “Between NBC & the Washington Post, you’d think somebody would have read Macbeth.”

The Texas Republican was not the only Twitter user to highlight Mitchell’s literary blunder. One commenter pointed to her Ivy League degree, writing, “Oh, dear. Oh, dear old Penn”:

Donald Trump Jr. advised his followers, “Don’t go for the dunk if you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about”:

Marianne Williamson, a 2020 Democrat primary presidential candidate, also chimed in to issue a correction:

Washington Examiner writer Siraj Hashmi, who compiles factually inaccurate or otherwise objectionable tweets into a weekly “List,” replied to Mitchell:

Many others also weighed in:

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com.

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