Something you may have noticed if you’ve kept up with BuzzFeed News’ reporting over the past year is that they’ve done a fair amount of posts on politicians using fake Founding Fathers quotes. Back in June, Andrew Kaczynski and Megan Apper reported that Rand Paul‘s first two books feature a lot of quotes that “are either fake, misquoted, or taken entirely out of context.”

Well, Paul has a new book out this month called Our Presidents & Their Prayers: Proclamations of Faith by America’s Leaders, and after looking through it, Kaczynski and Apper came out with another report today with the following title:

The new report goes through how some of the quotes Paul attributes to the Founding Fathers in his new book are fabricated, and even says that a prayer book Paul quotes George Washington from is fake.

After going through a bunch of examples, the report ends thusly:

This is where we stopped checking. You did a chapter on every president and we don’t have the time to check them all. All the best, Andrew Kaczynski and Megan Apper

Reporter/Researchers, BuzzFeed News

Well, Paul ended up responding to that report with some pretty tough language in an interview with The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel. Here’s what Paul had to say about Kaczynski:

“That guy,” Paul said dismissively, referring to Kaczynski. “The only criticisms have come from some guy who’s a partisan. We discount partisans. However, there’s a ridiculous cottage industry out there of people who think they’re smarter than everyone else, and because certain quotes are disputed – well, yeah! If you want to say something’s not a Thomas Jefferson quote, you can get a whole book on whether it’s a quote or not… “I mean, this idiot says the same thing about my speeches,” Paul said. “Do I need to say in my speech, ‘as many people attribute to Thomas Jefferson, but some people dispute,’ before I give the quote? It’s idiocy, it’s pedantry – it’s ridiculous stuff from partisan hacks. And I’d say that guy’s one of ‘em.”

Hachette Book Group, the publisher of Paul’s new book, released a statement to BuzzFeed News standing by its accuracy:

Nothing here is “made-up” or otherwise manufactured. They are documented, even if the original account is disputed.

There are a handful of quotes that are debated by historians and academics, and many more that liberals desperately wish were not true. Sources are properly cited and most are older than those rejecting their veracity. While we can argue about a couple of quotes, the vast majority reside in the federal government’s public record for all to view. Regardless of the nit-picking, one cannot deny that every single president has unashamedly and publicly acknowledged the role of God in our nation, thanking Him for his providence, seeking His guidance, and exalting His wisdom.

[image via Gage Skidmore]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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