[UPDATED WITH APOLOGY BELOW]
Jimmy Kimmel put out a video ‘exposing’ VP Mike Pence of delivering empty boxes of PPE as a publicity stunt:
Mike Pence caught on hot mic delivering empty boxes of PPE for a PR stunt. pic.twitter.com/IduvGhiPwj
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) May 8, 2020
As you can see, this hack Matt McDermott is really worked up over this:
No better example of the institutional failures that have happened during this crisis than the Vice President delivering empty boxes of masks to a nursing home before a gawking press.
— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) May 8, 2020
Andrea Mitchell jumped on the bandwagon here, calling it a ‘fake photo op’:
What can we say? Fake photo op? https://t.co/cd4IJR4AU6
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) May 8, 2020
But it turns out the video has been deceptively edited by Team Kimmel and isn’t true at all:
This made me curious, so I watched the unedited C-SPAN video. Pence makes multiple trips from van to the doors of the center delivering full boxes of PPE. Pence's comment about empties for the camera is a joke – he shuts the doors right after he says it.https://t.co/JMMz7nEVit https://t.co/VNw4aqJ3jN
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) May 8, 2020
Here's an unedited version of @VP Pence delivering PPE to Woodbine Rehab Center. The clip from @JimmyKimmel and sent viral by @mattmfm & others is quite deceptive. Pence is clearly joking when he talks about empty boxes for the camera, & shuts the van doors right after the quip. pic.twitter.com/HyV8iBiljS
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) May 8, 2020
Even Jimmy Kimmel ended up deleting the video from his twitter feed:
.@JimmyKimmelLive deleted their tweet that had the deceptively edited video of Pence delivering PPE. pic.twitter.com/ahloYGXSne
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) May 8, 2020
Here’s what I don’t get. Why would anyone just knee-jerk trust a hack late-night comedy guy like Jimmy Kimmel to put out real news? Andrea Mitchell doesn’t even check it before jumping on board and retweeting it. As soon as I saw who it was from I was skeptical, and the laughing at the end made me even more skeptical. Thankfully Jerry Dunleavy put out the full video exposing this blowhard and it turns out my gut was right on this one. I think Andrea Mitchell needs a gut replacement.
UPDATE: Kimmel apologizes for the fake video, but his dig at the administration undercuts his apology…
it would appear that @vp was joking about carrying empty boxes for a staged publicity stunt. The full video reveals that he was carrying full boxes for a staged publicity stunt. My apologies. I know how dearly this administration values truth. https://t.co/hI9cO4lxcX
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 8, 2020