CNN duped by fake Calif. politician during Mitch McConnell coverage

Sen. Mitch McConnell’s unexplained, four-week hospital stay launched a wave of rumors, from claims he is brain dead to speculation he had a major stroke. That left Republicans scrambling to explain what’s happening, and last week CNN found a perfect congressional politician to explain his disappearance. 

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The only problem? CNN relied on an entirely fake politician, quoting a parody account on X that poses as a California congressman.

Last Wednesday, the news network aired a photo of X user @RepJackKimble’s post saying he spoke to McConnell while the senator was in the hospital, writing, “We talked for just shy of 45 minutes. He’s so sharp.” While the parody post appeared on screen alongside real politicians, CNN hostAudie Cornish directly referenced the fake account’s claim. 

“You have a lot of Senate Republicans coming out, we’re going to just show some on screen, Isaac, all saying, ‘I talked to him. I talked to him. I talked to him for 20 minutes. I talked to him for 45 minutes,’” Cornish said.

CNN falling for the fake congressman is somewhat understandable — his posts regularly go viral as people think his strange conservative takes are coming from a real Republican. Both the Washington Post and the Huffington Post have fallen for his posts, according to an Amazon biography for the account. The social media poster has also written two books — “Detective Jesus #1: Thou Shalt Not Kill” and “Profiles in Courageousness: Decisive Moments in the Life of a Great American.” The author’s real identity is not clear; however, they refer to themselves as a Chicago school teacher. 

Cornish was quick to correct the network’s error, issuing a correction the following day.

“Yesterday on the show, we displayed quotes from a Republican, some Republicans, about Senator Mitch McConnell’s stay in the hospital. One of them was mistakenly taken from a parody account on Twitter,” Cornish said. “Now obviously we should not have done that and we regret the error.”

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McConnell’s staff have also recently broken their silence. They released a statement on Monday on behalf of the senator explaining that a fall led to his hospitalization and that he was “briefly unconscious” but did not have a stroke, heart attack, broken bones or a concussion. 

McConnell’s hospital stay is only the latest in a string of health emergencies affecting the nation’s top politicians in which the public has been kept in the dark. The late California Sen. Dianne Feinstein was absent from Congress for weeks following a shingles diagnosis in early 2023, with staff refusing to provide updates. New Jersey Rep. Tom Kean Jr. missed four months of House votes earlier this year without explanation, only later revealing it was for depression treatment. Texas Rep. Kay Granger was missing for months until a Dallas Express reporter found her at a nursing home specializing in memory care in late 2024. And former President Joe Biden was rarely available to press interviews while running for reelection in 2024, until a disastrous presidential debate performance showed delayed response and seemingly befuddled moments on stage and subsequently ended his presidential run. 

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:45 p.m., July 13, to correct the name of the CNN anchor.