Mitchell issued an apology after being mocked on social media. Andrea Mitchell, a veteran NBC News journalist, sought to dunk on Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, but instead demonstrated her own literary incompetence.
Mitchell made the humiliating error in a tweet mocking Cruz for making a renowned literary reference on Wednesday.
.@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) February 10, 2021
However, as many people pointed out on Twitter, Cruz was accurate, and Mitchell had no idea that William Faulkner had taken the title of his novel from one of Shakespeare’s plays.
Cruz used another Shakespeare quotation, this time from Hamlet, to chastise Mitchell.
Methinks she doth protest too much.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 11, 2021
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.”
“I think we’ll see the trial continue for the rest of the week,” Cruz said on Fox News Tuesday. It is reminiscent of Shakespeare that it is full of sound and fury and yet signifying nothing. You’re going to see a lot of effort to pull on emotion. We saw the beginning of that with the Hollywood video that the House managers began with. I think we’ll see a lot more of that today and tomorrow.”
He went on to explain that convicting the president in the Senate is practically difficult for Democrats since so many Republicans have already expressed opposition to the procedures, which require a two-thirds majority.
