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Bill McCarthy
By Bill McCarthy July 3, 2018

Viral image criticizing Democrats featured fabricated quotes lifted from satire website

A viral image circulating on Facebook wrongly credited three leading Democratic senators with made-up quotes lifted directly from a satire website. The image did not disclose that the quotes were satirical.

"Senate Democrats demand Supreme Court nominee not be unduly influenced by U.S. Constitution," the image said in bold yellow font. The image featured photos of Sens. Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, each with a quote attributed to them.

The quotes purported to portray the Democratic senators as more interested in pushing an agenda than abiding by constitutional laws.

"Time and time again, we find progressive laws getting struck down," Schumer is quoted saying. "And it’s always — always — the ones the Constitution is against. These right-wing judges don’t think for themselves, they just do whatever the Constitution says. And it’s time for that to end."

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The image also quoted Warren saying, "We need judges to be advocates of progressive laws, not people who will bow to the whims of the Constitution, pitting its extremist values of freedom of speech and freedom of religion against our agenda."

Finally, the image alleged that Booker said, "We’re sick and tired of the Constitution sitting in the National Archives, manipulating everything we do."

Several readers sent us emails flagging the image and asking that we check it out, so we did. We discovered that each quote is entirely made-up.

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As it turns out, the quotes can be traced to a June 29, 2018, article from the Babylon Bee, a website that describes itself as "your trusted source for Christian news satire."

We searched Google and Nexis and did not find any credible reports quoting Schumer, Warren or Booker in such fashion.

We rate this image Pants on Fire!

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Says Democratic Senators "demand Supreme Court nominee not be unduly influenced by U.S. Constitution."
in an image
Tuesday, July 3, 2018

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Viral image criticizing Democrats featured fabricated quotes lifted from satire website

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