Trump Impeachment: CNN Analyst Admits Fabricating Damning GOP Story, Tweets 'Fake News'

Liberal pundit and former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart is in the crosshairs of ticked-off right-wing media influencers for a bad joke gone awry.

Conservative media leaders, including presidential son Donald Trump Jr., the right wing website The Daily Wire, and Matt Wolking, Deputy Director of Communications-Rapid Response for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, are blasting Lockhart for what they say is his shamelessly inventing a conversation between two Republican senators allegedly reacting to the Democrats' presentation of evidence at the Senate impeachment trial.

All this right-wing rage involves two Lockhart tweets. Lockhart's first tweet on Thursday was startling: "Overheard convo between two Republican Senators who only watch Fox News. 'Is 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 s--t's creek. Hope the White House has exculpatory evidence.'"

That would have been that, but Lockhart then threw a hand granade into this soldering statement by tweeting a few minutes later: "Ok maybe I made up the convo, but you know that's exactly what they're thinking."

It smelled and felt like a joke aimed at GOP senators but Republicans aren't smiling. Instead, GOP first responders all plowed into Lockhart and CNN with a vengeance. The assaults on Lockhart and CNN were led by the Trump campaign's Rapid Response team, who were only living up to their name.

Wolking tweeted: “CNN employee @joelockhart is knowingly spreading lies and disinformation online just for the fun of it. This is what CNN pays him to do. 4,600 retweets for the lie, only 389 retweets for the admission that he made it up.”

Republican National Committee (RNC) Rapid Response Director Steve Guest said self-described Washington Post “conservative blogger” Jennifer Rubin, who he claims is really a leftist, promoted Lockhart’s fabricated quote on her Twitter account.

In reply, Steve Guest, a rapid response director for the Trump campaign, said "Is anyone surprised that @JRubinBlogger would push Joe Lockhart's FAKE NEWS tweet to her followers?"

An incensed Don Jr. got into the act and tweeted, "Remember, he works for CNN so him having to admit he fabricated the story seems redundant... but for those 3 people watching outside of airports it never hurts to let them know."

The Daily Wire condemned Lockhart in a lengthy story carrying the title, "CNN Analyst Joe Lockhart Admits He Fabricated Conversation Between GOP Senators" and featuring the enraged reactions to Lockhart's stunt from some of the GOP's leading lights.