Trump tweets fake news story from satirical conservative website

President Trump on Friday tweeted a fake news story published by the Babylon Bee, a satirical website aimed at Christian conservatives, mocking Twitter for blocking users from sharing an unconfirmed report about Joe Biden’s son.

The president apparently didn’t realize the story he was sharing was a joke.

The social media platform did block users from sharing a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine, based on questions about its veracity. And Twitter service was out for a time on Thursday afternoon, resulting from an unrelated technical glitch.

The Babylon Bee wasted no time in celebrating its most famous reader.

Trump also lashed out at Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, for what he described as a “nasty rumor” about her wavering support for Amy Coney Barrett, his latest Supreme Court nominee.

“There is a nasty rumor out there that @SenatorCollins of Maine will not be supporting our great United States Supreme Court Nominee,” the president tweeted. “Well, she didn’t support Healthcare or my opening up 5000 square miles of Ocean to Maine, so why should this be any different. Not worth the work!”

Collins, who is in a tough reelection fight for her Senate seat, is on the record saying she does not support confirming a nominee this close to the election because of the precedent set four years ago, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, from consideration.

But Trump is prone to spreading rumors and conspiracy theories to his 87 million Twitter followers.

During an NBC town hall in Miami on Thursday night, the president defended his recent retweet of a preposterous conspiracy theory about the death of Osama bin Laden.

“That was an opinion of somebody, and that was a retweet,” Trump explained. “I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves.”

“I don’t get that. You’re the president,” Savannah Guthrie, the moderator, replied. “You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.”

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