Josh Hawley's fake quote about America's Christian founding has a dark origin story

Sen. Josh Hawley marked the Fourth of July by tweeting theocratic propaganda through a fake quote incorrectly attributed to founding father Patrick Henry — and there's a dark implication to why he did it, wrote MSNBC's Steve Benen. "On the surface, it’s obviously unfortunate to see a senator — a graduate of Stanford and Yale — make a mistake like this, especially as so many other Republicans also fall for fake quotes," wrote Benen. "But let’s not brush past the underlying point the Missouri Republican was trying to make by way of a made-up line: Hawley seems certain that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, with members of one faith tradition — his own — enjoying exalted status over others." Thomas Jefferson — who was as bitter an ideological rival to Adams as modern-day Democrats are to Republicans — agreed, writing, "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law," and saying the First Amendment establishes “a wall of separation between church and state.” This is not the first time Hawley has come under fire for rewriting history.