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MS NOW host Katy Tur was called out for a question she posed to guests on her show Monday about House Speaker Mike Johnson putting "God over the Declaration of Independence."
"What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government, they come from you, our Creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?" Tur asked during her MS NOW show.
The clip went viral on social media, as Johnson and others were quick to call it out.
"Wow. Newsflash to MS Now: The 2nd paragraph of the Declaration literally proclaims the self-evident truth that our rights come from our Creator," Johnson wrote in response to the viral clip.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called out the MS NOW host on X, quoting the most famous line from the Declaration.
Katy Tur speaks onstage during the Variety and Rolling Stone Truth Seekers Summit presented by Paramount + at Second on Aug. 15, 2024, in New York City. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters after passage of a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, on April 30, 2026, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Bryan Bedder/Variety via Getty Images; Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
"How can @KatyTurNBC & MSDNC be so historically ignorant? The Speaker is not putting God ABOVE the Declaration — he is literally QUOTING FROM the Declaration: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,'" he said.
Tur posed the question to The Atlantic's McKay Coppins, who pushed back.
"I actually think that that idea is not wholly uncommon. I mean, the idea that we have certain inalienable rights that come from God can be read in a fairly benign way, which is basically that we have innate human rights, that our Constitution and our government, our democratic government, are meant to codify. Right? That idea is not totally abnormal," he said.
Johnson spoke at the "Rededicate 250" event at the National Mall over the weekend. He led a prayer at the event aimed at "rededicating" America to God ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday celebration.
Coppins suggested the thing that might alarm some people is "some of the rhetoric that we heard at this rally, that we are in a spiritual battle, right? That the forces of good and evil are at work here, and that partisan politics is injected directly into the spiritual biblical rhetoric."
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"Well, in the context of this rally, and with Mike Johnson and the movement, and the move toward Christian nationalism being more embedded in this culture, it’s not as benign when you put it into that context," Tur said in response. "The idea that the rights are divine, or are divined from a higher power, you can say that across multiple religions, yes, but this is not representing multiple religions."
Marc Thiessen, a Washington Post columnist, said Tur displayed "sheer ignorance of the principles of the American founding," and called it "stunning."
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Texas state Rep. Mitch Little suggested someone get Tur a copy of the Declaration.
Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins asked, "Who is going to tell them what the beginning of the Declaration declares?"
Conservative commentator Steve Guest wrote, "MSDNC hosts are historically illiterate."
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Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
