"Inaccurate": Fox News apologizes for publishing fake quote attributed to IRGC commander

Fox News was forced to apologize on air following a ynet exposé for echoing a fake quote attributed to the commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, Ahmad Vahidi. Anchor Bill Hemmer admitted that the quote, according to which "as long as the US and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue to work on ours for national security purposes," was "unverified and inaccurate."

"We regret the error," Hemmer said on air.

An article published on the Fox News website that featured the quote was also updated following the publication. According to the exposé by Ronen Bergman in ynet, the fake quote originated in a dubious Indian account, received a stamp of approval on Channel 14, and was echoed by Yair Netanyahu — reaching as far as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at Mount Herzl on August 5. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz also shared a tweet with this claim: "Finally admitting what has been clear for years," Waltz wrote.

The next day, Fox News used the quote when Bill Hemmer presented it during an interview with former US Central Command commander General Joseph Votel, asking him if Vahidi "said out loud what he wasn't supposed to say" regarding the regime's nuclear ambitions. The latter responded affirmatively to the attributed remarks, which were never made.

"I think he certainly did," Votel said, later claiming that the leadership of the Revolutionary Guards is an extremist element that views the struggle as existential, does not care about Iran's economy or its citizens, and is focused on maintaining power. At the end of the interview, Hemmer repeated the fake quote and said: "'We will continue to work on them for our national security' — that is the closest admission I have heard, and we have been following this story for years."