Former Bill Clinton press secretary and CNN political analyst Joe Lockhart took heat Wednesday after tweeting a story about a conversation he “overheard” between two Republican senators which he later admitted was “made up.”

“Overheard convo between two Republican Senators who only watch Fox News,” Lockhart tweeted amid Wednesday’s hearings in the Senate trial of President Trump. “‘[I]s this stuff real? I haven’t heard any of this before. I thought it was all about a server. If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we’re up shit’s creek. Hope the White House has exculpatory evidence.’”

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As of Thursday morning, Lockhart’s post got nearly 40,000 likes and almost 10,000 retweets, including a retweet from The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin, but minutes later he admitted that he “made up” the conversation, assuming that “that’s exactly what they’re thinking.”

But his follow-up tweet didn’t get nearly enough attention his original post did, receiving just over 1,000 retweets and less than 11, 000 likes.

About 20 minutes later, Lockhart criticized a separate tweet from Associated Press White House reporter Jill Colvin about Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, saying, “You can’t make this stuff up,” according to The Daily Caller.

A number of media personalities and Twitter users hammered Lochart and asked whether CNN will punish him for spreading “fake news.”

Hey …. visit CNN sometime and ask yourself, “Would this be any different if it were produced by the Democratic party?” #DontTrustTheMedia

“The former White House press secretary later admitted to making this whole conversation below up, but keeps up the tweet without deleting anyway (because accountability is basically dead),” tweeted The Hill reporter and Fox News contributor Joe Concha.

“Hey @brianstelter , as a very serious “journalist” do you have any thoughts on your colleague (a former Clinton staffer, of course) sharing a totally made up quote? Maybe cover this on the next episode of Unreliable Sources?” tweeted talk show host Dave Rubin.

But Lockhart refused to delete his tweet, saying the made-up conversation was meant as “satire” and that everyone should “relax.”

“Everyone relax. This is satire. Satire to make the point that Senators that are deciding the President’s fate who only watch Fox News have never heard this stuff before. Because Fox is part of the coverup,” he wrote.

The satirical website The Babylon Bee mocked Lockhart’s response, saying: “Leave the satire to us; we’ll leave the fake news to you.”

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