(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Journalist Christopher Rufo has promised to take legal action against Randi Weingarten, head of the country’s largest teachers’ union, after she used a “doctored” quote to stoke leftist rage against him, Biz Pac Review reported.
Rufo, who writes for the City Journal, has become a constant target of the Left’s ire due to his war against critical race theory and gender ideology in American boardrooms and classrooms.
Weingarten posted a quotation attributed to him to Twitter, claiming his goal was to “sow distrust and chaos.”
“Rufo himself said ‘To get to universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust. To sow & grow that distrust, you have to create your own narrative frame, & have to be brutal & ruthless in pursuing it,” she wrote.
Rufo himself said “To get to universal school choice,you really need to operate from a premise of universal public school distrust. To sow & grow that distrust, you have to create your own narrative frame,& have to be brutal & ruthless in pursuing it.” https://t.co/XY7e0yugtr
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) April 24, 2022
“Let’s be clear about what Rufo is saying. This isn’t about helping kids. This is about sowing distrust and chaos,” Weingarten added in a second tweet.
Let’s be clear about what Rufo is saying. This isn’t about helping kids. This is about sowing distrust and chaos.
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) April 24, 2022
Rufo responded strongly to her post, saying he will bring legal action against her and posting the source where the true quote can be heard.
This is a doctored quotation. Delete it, @rweingarten, or I will wage legal war against you—and, as you have made up the middle part of the quote entirely, I will win. https://t.co/SuR0wqjxUj
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 25, 2022
“Anyone can watch the Hillsdale speech to confirm,” Rufo said in a separate tweet. “Randi combines to unrelated lines and fabricates words ‘to sow and grow that distrust’ to make it seem sinister.”
“In the speech I say the opposite: the *teachers unions* have created distrust.”
Anyone can watch my Hillsdale speech to confirm. Randi combines two unrelated lines and fabricates the words “to sow & grow that distrust” to make it seem sinister. In the speech I say the opposite: the *teachers unions* have created distrust.https://t.co/F0WfVYdwXa
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 25, 2022
Instead of deleting the tweets and apologizing, Weingarten doubled down by repeating the doctored quote in an interview on MSNBC.
It’s getting worse for @rweingarten. She took her fabricated quotation and read it live on MSNBC.
Randi: delete your false tweets and issue an official retraction—or I will unleash hell on you. pic.twitter.com/QKnZwiRawc
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) April 25, 2022
Rufo said he would “unleash hell” on Randi if she did not stop twisting his words.
After her MSNBC appearance, she did admit to “deliberately fabricating ‘to sow and grow that distrust’ with the intention of damaging [Rufo’s] reputation,” but she did not delete the original tweet or retract her statements.
Rufo has not taken any official legal action against Weingarten yet, but seems to be gearing up to do so.
