NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell flubbed an attempt to fact-check GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s reference to a quote by Shakespeare, inviting some “double, double toil and trouble.”
Cruz (R-Texas) was discussing the second Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on Fox News Wednesday when he invoked a line from Shakespeare.
“It’s reminiscent of Shakespeare [in] that it is full of sound and fury, and yet signifying nothing,” he said, reciting a soliloquy from “Macbeth.”
But Mitchell apparently thought the quote came from author William Faulkner of Mississippi instead of the Bard of Avon.
“@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner,” she tweeted.
Getty ImagesFaulkner used part of the quote for the title of his 1929 novel, “The Sound and the Fury.”
The full quote from “Macbeth” reads, ”It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Annie Gowan of the Washington Post tweeted: “Oh dear Andrea, this is a Scottish tragedy.”
Sen. Ted Cruz later responded to Mitchell by invoking Shakespeare again. Bloomberg via Getty Images“Um, Andrea. You know how ‘Out, damn spot!’ might SOUND like it’s from a Tide commercial, but it’s REALLY from Macbeth? Well…,” tweeted Robert George of Bloomberg Opinion.
Mitchell apologized later for the literary blunder.
Mitchell’s mistake came as she tried to correct Sen. Ted Cruz. The Washington Post via Getty Images“I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz,” she posted.
Cruz needled Mitchell on her knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays, referring to a line in “Hamlet” to make his point.
“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.’ Methinks she doth protest too much,” Cruz said.
