Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade Ripped For Literal Fake News About Ocasio-Cortez
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Monday shared a phony quote attributed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then suggested it backs what President Donald Trump has been saying about Democrats.
Kilmeade ― a co-host of “Fox & Friends,” reputedly one of Trump’s favorite shows ― tweeted:
The tweet was debunked last month by Snopes, rated “pants on fire” by PolitiFact, shot down by FactCheck and disproved by The Associated Press, among others.
The New York Democrat fired back: “As a Fox News host are you going to take responsibility for spreading fabricated information about a sitting member of Congress or...?”
Kilmeade deleted the tweet about an hour later, then after another hour issued an apology in quotes:
“I have deleted my earlier tweet regarding Rep. Cortez, I apologize for the error.”
— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) July 21, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez replied:
Wish I could say I appreciate the effort, but you didn’t even get my name right.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 21, 2020
Kilmeade’s critics on Twitter called him out over it:
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
That’s not real, Brian. It was debunked a long time ago. Good Lord.https://t.co/T4A4Iccsn5 https://t.co/JB5vG6Cdm1
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 21, 2020
It’s a fake tweet, genius.
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) July 21, 2020
This is photoshopped. What are you doing?
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) July 21, 2020
Why is Brian Kilmeade spreading a hoax tweet falsely attributed to AOC? Oh wait. Fox News.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) July 21, 2020
Putting it in quotes implies that somebody else said it. This is an odd tweet.
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) July 21, 2020
1) Her name is Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Safe to assume the disrespectful reference reflects your mix of misogyny & racism
2) When you apologize for slandering someone you normally need to include them, in this case @AOC
3) Why is your tweet is in quotes? That makes no sense— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) July 21, 2020
Posting fake tweets now. You’re a class act, dumbass.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) July 21, 2020
Forgot to delete the quotation marks in your copy and paste, dude.
— Tiffany Thiele (@thielefor55th) July 21, 2020
The fact that Brian Kilmeade passes himself off as anything other than a partisan hack is hilarious to me.https://t.co/euUja6arT1
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) July 21, 2020
"I apologize". pic.twitter.com/OhnNiiaiAe
— kk (@austex78748) July 21, 2020
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.