CNN was forced to apologize Thursday after the network aired a quote from a fake Republican congressman while covering questions about Senator Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) health. The mistake happened during “CNN This Morning,” when the show displayed several supposed statements from Republicans who said they had recently spoken with McConnell. One of those statements came from “Rep. Jack Kimble,” a long-running parody account pretending to be a member of Congress from a district that does not exist. The post was meant as a joke, but CNN treated it seriously enough to put it on screen with real statements from actual political figures.
The embarrassing moment came as questions continue to swirl around McConnell, who has been hospitalized and out of public view for weeks. CNN was discussing Republican efforts to reassure the public that the Kentucky senator was alert and communicating with colleagues. Host Audie Cornish introduced a graphic showing comments from people who said they had spoken with McConnell. The problem was that one of the supposed Republicans in the graphic was not a Republican lawmaker at all.
The quote from the fake congressman initially sounded similar to the real comments CNN was discussing. It said the parody account had spoken with McConnell, described him as still recovering in the hospital, and claimed the call lasted just shy of 45 minutes. That was apparently enough for the quote to make it into the CNN segment. The joke became obvious only when viewers looked beyond the cropped portion CNN aired and saw that the post went on to say McConnell “let me do all of the talking,” prayed silently, and then won a staring contest.
The Daily Caller reported that Cornish addressed the mistake on Thursday morning, roughly a day after the network displayed the fake quote. “Yesterday on the show, we displayed quotes from some Republicans about Senator Mitch McConnell’s stay in the Hospital,” Cornish said. “One of them was mistakenly taken from a parody account on Twitter.” She then admitted, “Obviously, we should not have done that, and we regret the error.”
The parody post itself came from the X account Rep. Jack Kimble, which describes itself as a Republican representing California’s 54th Congressional District. California does not have a 54th congressional district, and the account has been known for years as a satirical political character. The post said, “I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 45 minutes.”
The full joke did not stop there. Kimble’s post continued, “He’s so sharp. Just like always he let me do all of the talking.” It then added, “He’s a great listener. After that we prayed silently for awhile and had a staring contest. Just like always, he beat me.” CNN’s graphic aired the beginning of the post, but the rest of the text made clear that the account was not offering a real update about McConnell’s condition.
Watch CNN apologize for using the parody post here:
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The mistake happened during Wednesday’s show while Cornish was talking about Republicans saying they had spoken to McConnell. NewsBusters reported that the graphic included comments attributed to spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso, along with a statement from CNN commentator Scott Jennings. The fourth quote was the fake one from Jack Kimble. Cornish said on air that Republicans were “all saying, ‘I talked to him,’” including one who supposedly talked to him for 45 minutes.
That “45 minutes” line appears to have come from the parody post. The real Jennings quote, according to the CNN graphic, said he had spoken with McConnell for just shy of 20 minutes. The fake Kimble quote said the call lasted just shy of 45 minutes. That made the parody account look like part of a broader Republican effort to calm speculation about McConnell’s health, even though the account was mocking the situation.
Kimble quickly leaned into the mistake after CNN aired the quote. In a follow-up post, the parody account shared an image of the CNN graphic and wrote, “CNN’s extreme leftwing bias exposed.” The joke was that the network had supposedly platformed a Republican congressman, except the congressman was fictional. The post spread as conservatives and media critics mocked CNN for missing a parody that was not especially hard to check.
The Jack Kimble account has fooled media figures before. NewsBusters noted that the account has been cited in multiple fact checks and that it previously duped former Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart in 2010. The account also refers to “Poe’s Law,” an internet term about satire being mistaken for sincere political commentary. In this case, the joke landed again because CNN put the parody account beside real Republican statements during a serious segment about a hospitalized senator.
McConnell’s health has been the subject of growing public discussion because his office has released limited details about his condition. Reports have said the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican was hospitalized after a medical emergency in June. Republican leaders and allies have tried to reassure the public by saying they have spoken with him and that he remains engaged. CNN was trying to cover that effort, but the fake Kimble quote turned the segment into a media embarrassment instead.
The apology was short, but the damage was already done online. CNN had placed a fictional congressman on screen during a segment about one of the most powerful Republicans in the Senate. The fake quote included enough ridiculous details to make the satire clear once the full post was read. Cornish admitted the network should not have done it, while Kimble and CNN’s critics used the mistake as another example of a major media outlet getting tripped up by a joke account on X.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.