Harvard law professor falls for fake tweet suggesting governor's child was 'immaculately conceived:' 'WTAF!?'

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Harvard law professor and Twitter liberal Laurence Tribe fell for a fake tweet showing a screenshot purportedly from Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte announcing his child was "immaculately conceived."

The fabricated screenshot, shared by a Twitter user, attributes a tweet to the Republican governor's official Twitter account, with the text, "Much like my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, my child was immaculately conceived, blessing me and my wonderful wife Susan the ability to remain virgins. #virginityrocks"

While the tweet was immediately presumed fake in the comment section, Tribe, a renowned retired Harvard professor, seemed to have missed the memo. 

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Laurence H. Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University. (Headshot courtesy of Laurence Tribe)

"WTAF?!" Tribe tweeted on Sunday alongside the image. "Is this an application for the Nutcase of the Year award? Or just the dumbest ad ever for IVF?"

Laurence Tribe quote tweeted a satirical tweet. 

The tweet was later labeled "fake" in an alert by Twitter, which linked to a Reuters fact-check concluding that "no such tweet was published by Gov. Gianforte."

A spokesperson for Gianforte told Reuters, "The governor did not tweet this absolutely absurd tweet." 

Still, Tribe's tweet remained on Twitter Monday, providing plenty of fuel for his critics who pummeled the professor for falling for the absurd tweet.

"Genuinely embarrassing that you fell for this," Matt Whitlock, who works in Republican communications, told Tribe.

"Joke’s on you - Tribe is incapable of embarrassment," attorney Damin Toell responded.

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Eric Columbus, an Obama DOJ official and litigator for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, urged Tribe to "Please think twice before sharing such nonsense," noting that this is "obviously a fake tweet."

"What Eric said. You need to be better than this!" journalist Doug Maine agreed.

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Former Navy Seal Joel Lambert asked, "Larry, you ever going to get tired of embarrassing yourself?"

Tribe has taught at Harvard for more than five decades and has close ties to President Obama.

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In a May 2018 interview with CNN, Tribe warned viewers that if they truly want Trump impeached, they must "shoot to kill," focussing on major abuses of power instead of nitpicking minor incidents.

He later apologized for the comment.

Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.