MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell was ridiculed online on Wednesday after she tried calling Sen. Ted Cruz out on a literary reference, only ...
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell was ridiculed online on Wednesday after she tried calling Sen. Ted Cruz out on a literary reference, only to get it wrong herself.
While speaking about the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump on America's Newsroom, Cruz referenced Shakespeare, saying 'It's reminiscent of Shakespeare [in] that it is full of sound and fury, and yet signifying nothing.'
The line is from Macbeth, one of the most famous plays William Shakespeare ever wrote.
Mitchell saw this as an opportunity to needle Cruz, tweeting '@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner.'
Ted Cruz appeared on America's Newsroom on Wednesday, where he threw in a reference to Macbeth while discussing Donald Trump's second impeachment trial
Mitchell was right in thinking that The Sound and Fury was a novel by William Faulkner, which came out in 1929.
But Faulkner used the words from Macbeth, which predates Faulkner's novel by over 300 years.
And Cruz made sure to point out her mistake, writing: 'Methinks she doth protest too much. One would think NBC would know the Bard. Andrea, take a look at Macbeth act 5, scene 5: "[Life] struts & frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound & fury, Signifying nothing".'
He also took a shot at Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who had sided with Mitchell, saying: 'Between NBC & the Washington Post, you’d think somebody would have read Macbeth.'
Mitchell relented about an hour and a half after her original shot down the bow, tweeting a mea culpa over her mistake.
'I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz.'
Ted Cruz (left) was able to jump on Twitter himself to make fun of the mistake by Mitchell (right)
But Twitter had a field day mocking Mitchell for her mistake.
One user wrote: 'Out, damned spot! Out, I say! No, that’s not Shakespeare. It’s a Tide Spot Remover commercial. -Andrea Mitchell, probably.'
Another cheekily asked if it was too late for the host to ask for her money back on her degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania.
'Oh dear Andrea, this tweet is a Scottish tragedy,' said reporter Annie Gowen.
Robert A George tweeted, 'Um, Andrea. You know how 'Out, damn spot!' might SOUND like it's from a Tide commercial, but it's REALLY from Macbeth? Well... .'
Charlotte Clymer saw the humor in it all, writing, 'The dunking on Andrea Mitchell for a silly goof referencing a novel that is far more famous for the words than the original phrase in which they were coined is peak Twitter.'
One Twitter expressed disappointment in Mitchell's mistake forcing them to acknowledge Cruz being correct about something.
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