Glenn Beck seems to have been nailed by the men and women who protected the nation's most prized political documents: The National Archives.
While speaking during his "Restoring Honor" rally Saturday, Beck said that he'd held an original speech given by George Washington.
Beck remarked, "I held the first inaugural address written in his own hand by George Washington."
Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer destroys the claim in an Mother Jones' Wednesday. The National Archives says Beck never held the document in his hands.
"Beck did receive a special VIP tour of the archives, arranged by an as-yet unidentified member of Congress. During that tour, he did get a peek inside the "legislative vault," which isn't open to ordinary visitors," Mencimer says.
"But Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper insists that Beck didn't lay a finger on any precious documents, much less George Washington’s inaugural address. That would be a major violation of policy," she adds.
"Those kinds of treasures are only handled by specially trained archival staff," Cooper said. "I'm certain it was a figure of speech," she says.
While rallying his Washington crowd, Beck averred that the next George Washington could was in the crowd. "He may be 8 years old, but this is the moment," Beck declared. "This is the moment that he dedicates his life, that he sees giants around him. And 25 years from now, he will come not to this stair, but to those stairs. And he can proclaim, 'I have a new dream.'"
