“I want to get to that because it happened now,” Faulkner told Trump as he attacked the Biden government over the sudden increase in migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border. “I want to check this with our producers.”
Faulkner continued: “The DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has resigned, Mr. President.”
Trump, who attacked Mayorkas as “pathetic” and “clueless” in a statement on Sunday, then celebrated.
“I’m not surprised,” said Trump. “Great. It’s a great victory for our country.”
Faulkner, visibly confused as he tried to listen to his producers, then withdrew.
“Wait. Let me stop, let me stop. Let me hear my team one more time,” said Faulkner. “Forgive me. Forgive me. It didn’t happen, but – I apologize.”
Faulkner suggested that “listening to the team” and Trump at the same time resulted in confusion that led to the error.
A spokesman for Fox said that “the error resulted from an audio problem in a virtual work environment. We fixed the error and continued with the interview.”
However, it is unusual for a national news anchor to incorrectly report the resignation of a cabinet secretary – especially when there was no reason to believe that such a resignation was set to occur.
A Fox spokesman gave no explanation.