A top legal adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign is attempting to defend truth and honesty ― by using a quote falsely attributed to President Teddy Roosevelt.
Jenna Ellis posted a photo on Twitter Tuesday night of the 26th president with this quote:
“To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.”
The problem is there is no evidence Roosevelt ever said that, according to Reuters.
A Snopes story from 2016 said the misattributed quote dates back to at least 2004, and possibly to 1999.
After she was called out for using a fake quote for a tweet defending truth and honesty, Ellis defended herself using “truthiness,” that term coined by Stephen Colbert to explain things that may not be true, but feel that way.
Twitter users pointed out the flaws in her argument.
In the spirit of Ellis’ post, many Twitter users made up their own quotes and falsely attributed them to her.
One person couldn’t help but speculate on the meaning of the word “ifea.”
One person felt the best way to respond to Ellis’ fake Roosevelt quote is with a real one.
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