NBC's Andrea Mitchell Tries to Correct Ted Cruz, Embarrasses Herself Instead
Longtime NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell tried and failed to correct Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who’d quoted Shakespeare with regard to congressional Democrats’ impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Tragically for her, she ended up embarrassing herself.
In an appearance on Fox News, Cruz had equated the trial to an ill-fated sham being put on by dunces, using a quote from “Macbeth”: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Mitchell, who has an English literature degree, attempted to mock the former Ivy League debate champ on Twitter. It didn’t go so well for her.
“@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner,” she tweeted.
.@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 10, 2021
Mitchell, the chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, must have been under the impression that author William Faulkner had written the original quote. Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” was published in 1929, but it was Shakespeare who wrote its muse — as a number of onlookers pointed out.
Um, he was right. The quote originated in MacBeth. pic.twitter.com/a14XOQAABY
— Brit Hume (@brithume) February 11, 2021
Incorrect. Faulkner took the name for his novel (the Sound and the Fury) from Macbeth. pic.twitter.com/Rmk2RJsFZC
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 11, 2021
“Sound and fury signifying nothing” is Shakespeare. “The Sound and the Fury” is a novel by Faulkner.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) February 11, 2021
Mitchell, after becoming aware of her error, issued another tweet, this time with an apology to Cruz.
“I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz,” she wrote.
I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth. My apologies to Sen. Cruz.
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 11, 2021
Cruz then entered the conversation to inform Mitchell where she could find the quote he had used.
“Methinks she doth protest too much. One would think NBC would know the Bard,” the senator wrote.
“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.
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.”— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 11, 2021
The most humiliating part of all of this for Mitchell is that she, of all media talking heads, should have known better.
“A native of New York, Mitchell received a B.A. degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania where she is a past Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees and currently services as Chair of the Board of Overseers of the School of Arts and Sciences,” reads her biography on MSNBC, where she hosts “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”
Mitchell now joins scores of other people who have taken on Cruz and been embarrassed.
In this case, the senator didn’t even have to do anything.
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