Retired ‘Navy SEAL’ praising Trump on Fox News was a fake

Fox News ran a story on Oct. 8 about a decorated Vietnam War Navy SEAL and glass artist who created an enormous presidential glass seal he hoped to give to President Trump. On Thursday, 11 days later, the network retracted the story after being told the Trump supporter never served in the SEALs or in Vietnam, much less earned commendations for his service.

In the segment, John Garofalo, 72, a resident of New York state, said he served in the Vietnam War with a U.S. Navy SEAL team. Fox News reported that he also received two Purple Hearts and about two dozen other medals for his service.

The man’s claimed record turned out to be a fabrication.

But the story was still on the news outlet’s Facebook page on Oct. 19. By then it had amassed 1.5 million views.

Fox published a correction on Thursday.

“All of Garofalo’s claims turned out to be untrue,” Fox’s correction stated. “The fact is that he did not serve in Vietnam. He was never a U.S. Navy SEAL. Even though he showed us medals, Garofalo was not awarded two Purple Hearts or any of the other nearly two dozen commendations he claimed to have received, except for the National Defense Service Medal.”

A Fox spokesman told the Navy Times it would run an on-air correction on Sunday.

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