MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow cut into former Congressman JD Hayworth on Monday for his outrageous assertion that marriage equality in Massachusetts would allow a person to marry a horse. While speaking to a Florida radio program on Sunday, Hayworth said "You see, the Massachusetts Supreme Court, when it started this move toward same-sex marriage, actually defined marriage -- now get this -- it defined marriage as simply, 'the establishment of intimacy’. Now how dangerous is that? I mean, I don't mean to be absurd about it, but I guess I can make the point of absurdity with an absurd point -- I guess that would mean if you really had affection for your horse, I guess you could marry your horse."

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But as Maddow points out, the language Hayworth cited in that interview does not actually exist.

“So here’s my question about that,” Maddow challenged Hayworth. “Where does the ‘establishment of intimacy’ thing come from? Where in Massachusetts law or in the Supreme Court ruling does it say ‘the establishment of intimacy’? I spent the whole afternoon sort of looking for that and couldn’t find it anywhere.”

Hayworth suggested that Maddow simply had a “disagreement” with him. “Well it either is true or it isn’t. It’s empirical,” Maddow finally said. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews also criticized Hayworth’s comments.

“Bringing up the connection between horse and rider in this debate really doesn’t show a lot of common sense or human understanding,” said Matthews.

Meanwhile, Hayworth issued a statement on Monday saying that he stands by his claim, but once again did not clarify where he found the language he cited. GLAAD applauds Rachel Maddow for taking former Congressman JD Hayworth to task and ensuring that politicians be held accountable for their claims.