Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has apologized for spreading fake news after being called out by New York Daily News columnist Shaun King.
Huckabee, who has more than two million Facebook fans, posted a Conservative Tribune article about vandalism at Northwestern University and blamed “liberal, Jewish Northwestern students who were trying to smear Trump and his supporters.”
King pointed out that “actual incident happened eight months ago” and Huckabee took notice.
“They accused me of spreading false information and hatred, and demanded an apology,” Huckabee told Forward about the Daily News. “And they’re right, I do owe readers an apology.
King wrote that Huckabee spreading fake news undermines “real hate crimes that have occurred following the presidential election.”
Huckabee’s original post said, “Everything You Know Is Wrong Dept: Liberals went ballistic after someone defaced the chapel at Northwestern University in Chicago, using spray paint to deface photos of Muslim students, draw swastikas and write slurs against blacks and gays, and of course, the name ‘Trump… Can you believe what those evil, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic deplorables who support Trump did?!”
The crime that Huckabee blamed on Trump winning the election was actually from last March, when Anthony Morales and Matthew Kafker were caught on camera vandalizing a local church. They have been kicked out of school and charged with hate crimes.
On Thursday, President Obama spoke about spreading fake news on social media.
“If we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems,” President Obama said during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.