The Conversation (0)
x
Greg Evans
Nov 22, 2019
Ivanka Trump has found herself on the receiving end of ridicule after she appeared to share a fake quote on impeachment which she attributed to the 19 century political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville.
On Thursday evening, the president's daughter shared a tweet which appeared to condemn the ongoing impeachment hearings against her father and the alleged 'quid-pro-quo' he offered to the Ukrainian president in return for information about Joe Biden.
In the quote that Ivanka shared it said:
A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.
“A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment a… https://t.co/8tXRjtqQMY— Ivanka Trump (@Ivanka Trump) 1574378561
Ivanka then claimed that de Tocqueville said these words in 1835 but a few folks on Twitter soon noticed that something wasn't quite right about this quote.
The quote actually came from a book written by John Innes Clark Hare in 1889, where de Tocqueville's words, which were about the unsuccessful impeachment of Andrew Johnson, were summarised by Hare.
Hare actually wrote:
It was long since remarked by de Tocqueville that a decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.
Ivanka, who still hasn't deleted the tweet, as since been widely mocked for misquoting de Tocqueville, with some giving her a brief history lesson in US democracy.
@jbouie The source for this quote, oft repeated, is an 1889 book, not Tocqueville. https://t.co/uJrgMJUs1u— Fred MacDowell (@Fred MacDowell) 1574380085
I made a whole movie about de Tocqueville and he never said that. He did say "He was as great as a man can be with… https://t.co/IJwELHvXrr— John Fugelsang (@John Fugelsang) 1574386959
This quote is not de Tocqueville, but a wrong attribution from a WSJ opinion piece, you dull-witted sycophant. Also… https://t.co/s5MhBBGb0g— Victoria Brownworth (@Victoria Brownworth) 1574425528
1. As others have noted, this is a paraphrase from Judge Hare in 1889, not from Democracy in America itself. The gi… https://t.co/iIamky0Kkg— Yoni Appelbaum (@Yoni Appelbaum) 1574384294
“Donald Trump is moral garbage. Impeach that motherfucker.” Ghost of Alexis de Tocqueville, 2019 https://t.co/DKjLqjXs56— Sarah Churchwell (@Sarah Churchwell) 1574384760
"Go to prison." America, 2019 https://t.co/5A8nqHanI8— Eric Garland (@Eric Garland) 1574378984
Others used the tweet to reshare some of her father's most infamous quotes.
Says woman whose dad has lied in public over 13,000 times in public in his first 1,000 days in office. https://t.co/AYwBLOgns6— Mark Elliott (@Mark Elliott) 1574386429
"Grab 'em by the pussy." "Do us a favor though." "Very fine people on both sides." "Bleeding from her whatever." "I… https://t.co/nCKZKVqQQz— Bob Cesca (@Bob Cesca) 1574379876
Which of these bothers Ivanka? Lying about the Central Park 5 Grabbing women by the p---y Paying hush money to a p… https://t.co/tDfsy9MH0J— Keith Boykin (@Keith Boykin) 1574393968
If she had really done some revision she would have learnt that de Tocqueville wouldn't have been a big fan of Donald Trump, as some Twitter folks pointed out to her.
“What is to be feared is not so much the immorality of the great as the fact that immorality may lead to greatness.… https://t.co/03tUXgKOWG— Windsor Mann (@Windsor Mann) 1574378960
"If, after having concentrated all the powers of government, [Americans] should vest them in the hands of an irresp… https://t.co/w5yzPJNNVZ— Dr. Danna Young🇺🇸✌🏻 (@Dr. Danna Young🇺🇸✌🏻) 1574385500
HT Newsweek
Keep reading...Show less
Top 100
