GOP Posts Fake George Washington Quote On Twitter, Nabbed By Media Fact Checker

He was quickly taken down by a CNN reporter.

The GOP tweeted Friday: “Let freedom be free.” A quotation is added, said to be from Washington, which says: “It will be found an unjust and unreasonable zeal to deprive a man of his natural liberty, on the supposition that he may abuse it.”

But CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski countered that Washington had nothing to do with the quote, according to the George Washington Mount Vernon Estate. It lists the phrase in the GOP tweet under “fake quotes.”

Kaczynski helpfully included a link to his corrective tweet.

The estate was unable to definitively trace the actual origin of the quote. One on Twitter attributed it to a 1650 letter written by Oliver Cromwell, a British politician in 1600. Several other fact-checking websites agreed.

Critics on Twitter found it extremely ironic that the GOP would screw up a quote about freedom amid the party’s crackdown on women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ human rights, people of color and voting rights.

The GOP quote was still up late Saturday night and still falsely attributed to Washington.