Chris Hayes Mocks Fox News’ Hoax Story Retraction: ‘I Guess There’s a First Time for Everything’ (Video)

MSNBC host says the story played “directly into the most deranged bias” of Fox News’ audience

Last week Fox News did something it almost never does: The network admitted a false story it promoted incessantly actually was false. And on Monday, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes had fun with the whole thing, in particular Fox News primestime star Laura Ingraham.

Ingraham was tasked with disclosing the mistake, saying the network “had no clue” why anyone would make that story up. “I guess there’s a first time for everything,” Hayes quipped after explaining his view that the story “plays directly into the most deranged bias” of Fox News’ audience.

Watch the clip above now.

Last week, the Murdoch-owned New York Post ran a story claiming that 20 homeless veterans had been kicked out of hotels in upstate New York to make room for “migrants.” Fellow Murdoch-owned Fox News naturally picked the story up and ran with it throughout the week — using “illegals” in place of “migrants,” of course.

The network repeatedly claimed it had verified the facts of the story, and Ingraham herself talked about it alongside a chyron reading “New York City Puts Illegals Ahead of Veterans.” Soon, Republican politicians were talking about it in order to attack liberals and the Biden administration.

But a local paper, the Mid-Hudson News, proved that a nonprofit forged documents backing the story up, and then paid several homeless men to lie and claim they were veterans; the motivation for this hoax is still not known. And so it is on Friday night that Ingraham, at the end of her show, admitted that the story was a lie. Which brings us back to Hayes.

Hayes broke the whole thing down, and then played Ingraham’s statement, which ended thusly: “We’ve no clue as to why anyone would do such a thing, but we’ll bring you any updates, should they come.”

“Oh, the end of the show on a Friday night, just got in there. Yes, Laura, why would anyone want to make up a story that’s too good to check, but plays directly into the most deranged bias of your conservative audience?” Hayes joked. “I can’t imagine Fox News airing those kinds of lies, but I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

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