CNN political analyst Joe Lockhart created fake news in real time during President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate on Wednesday, falsely claiming that House Democrats were swaying Senate Republican opinions.
Lockhart tweeted: “Overheard convo between two Republican Senators who only watch Fox News. “is this stuff real? I haven’t heard any of this before. I thought it was all about a server. If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we’re up shit’s creek. Hope the White House has exculpatory evidence”.
As of Thursday morning, his tweet had nearly 9,000 retweets.
The problem: it was fake, as Lockhart admitted nine minutes later: “Ok maybe I made up the convo, but you know that’s exactly what they’re thinking.” That was only retweeted 900 times.
Lockhart’s reporting was contradicted by actual interviews with Senate Republicans. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), for example — hardly a lockstep Trump supporter — emerged from the Senate Wednesday evening and blasted the Democrats for failing to provide any evidence, after several hours, that would prove their case against Trump.
Scott told reporters: “What we have seen is just a rehashing of yesterday’s charade. Therefore, the conclusion is a very simple one: that the goal of this entire process is not to remove the president from office. It is simply to remove certain Republican Senators — Colorado, North Carolina, Iowa, Maine, and Arizona — from office.”
Lockhart is a CNN political analyst who also served as President Bill Clinton’s press secretary. He made no apology for creating fake news and spreading it. His tweet remains up as of Thursday morning, long after his admission.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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