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MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance falsely claimed on Sunday that Fox News would not air ex-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s highly anticipated congressional testimony in an apparent attempt to mislead her Twitter followers.
Vance chalked it up to “irony” for hours after being confronted with her misstatement, before finally deleting the inaccurate message.
Fox News has regularly promoted its coverage of the testimony, which begins at 8 a.m. ET on July 24. But the Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney-turned-MSNBC legal contributor didn’t let the facts stop her from claiming that FNC wouldn't air the testimony in order to shield it from President Trump's "base."
“Fox isn’t showing Mueller’s testimony Wednesday. Trump is afraid of what will happen if his base gets to hear Mueller’s testimony for themselves,” Vance told her 337,000 Twitter followers on Sunday.
MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance’s inaccurate information had over 40,000 engagements before it was finally deleted.
Fox News will not only air the testimony, anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, but its primetime lineup will provide a thorough analysis of the event as well.
Reporters on both sides of the political spectrum quickly shot down Vance’s misinformation, but the MSNBC contributor claimed she was simply joking. Vance spent a large portion of Sunday defending her misinformation as "sarcasm" and "irony" before quietly deleting the message hours after it went viral.
“Y’all, a kind friend pointed out my goofy sense of humor doesn’t always translate onto Twitter. I know most of you get the irony by now,” the Vance responded when she was called out. “Sorry for the sarcasm gap. I always forget Twitter doesn’t capture tone.”
Neither MSNBC nor its parent company Comcast immediately responded to Fox News’ request for comment regarding Vance's spreading of false information on social media.
MSNBC GUEST BIZARRELY DECLARES PRESIDENT TRUMP IS 'MORE RACIST’ THAN NEO-NAZIS
MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance’s false claim received significant attention on social media. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
MSNBC famously gave a second chance to Brian Williams after he was removed from NBC’s “Nightly News” for embellishing his experience while covering the Iraq War in 2003, and the liberal network also stood by Joy Reid when she claimed homophobic and other hateful posts on her pre-fame blog were planted by diabolical hackers. Reid got emotional on the air when her hacking claim fell apart and admitted it seemed unlikely she was hacked, but claimed that she didn’t recall making the offensive remarks, for which she apologized anyway.
Vance's claims of irony received significantly less engagement than the misleading original tweet, which had over 40,000 engagements. Vance eventually deleted the tweet but her explanation received less than 200 engagements compared to the 40,000 that the inaccurate info garnered.
Vance was nominated for U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama by then-President Barack Obama back in 2009, according to the University of Alabama where Vance is now a law professor.
Mueller has said that he had nothing to say other than what is in his report but House Judiciary and Intelligence committees subpoenaed him anyway. His 22-month investigation did not find any evidence of collusion between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
Republicans plan on asking Mueller about information regarding potential misconduct related to the origin of the probe, which was not included in the probe.
Chris Wallace, Juan Williams, Katie Pavlich, Andrew McCarthy and Ken Starr are part of Fox News' coverage of the Mueller report, in addition to anchors Baier and MacCallum. The network will also air a special edition of “Outnumbered” featuring Harris Faulkner, Sandra Smith, Dagen McDowell and Emily Compagno.
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
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