Fake Post About McConnell Fools CNN

CNN is acknowledging it was duped. On Thursday's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish apologized after the network aired a quote about hospitalized Sen. Mitch McConnell that came from a fake Republican congressman, Mediaite reports. The network had displayed a graphic of supposed messages from GOP lawmakers claiming to have had 20-minute conversations with McConnell. One of those posts was attributed to "Rep. Jack Kimble"—a long-running parody account, not an actual member of Congress. "Obviously, we should not have done that, and we regret the error," Cornish said.

Little is known publicly about the condition of McConnell, who was found unconscious at his home and hospitalized on June 14. Several fellow Republicans have said they talked to him on the phone, among them CNN analyst Scott Jennings. While giving an account of the conversation Tuesday night on the network, per People, Jennings was pressed to call him then, on the air. He laughed the idea off.