Kimmel apologizes for suggesting Pence carried ’empty boxes’ to nursing home

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel on Friday apologized for sharing a video that made it look like Vice President Pence delivered empty boxes to a nursing home.

“[I]t would appear that @vp was joking about carrying empty boxes for a staged publicity stunt,” Kimmel tweeted Friday afternoon. He then apologized while making it clear he still believed the event was “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,” Kimmel said.

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

Kimmel’s apology follows a clip from his Thursday night show that went viral, with at least one tweet that included the video getting nearly 5 million views.

In the clip, Pence is carrying boxes from a van to the door of a nursing home in Virginia, during an event that was covered by the news media on Thursday.

In an exchange caught on what appears to be a hot mic, Pence is told boxes in the van are empty.

Pence, caught at low volume in the video, responds: “Well, can I carry the empty ones? Just for the cameras?”

Others in the video laugh.

“Mike Pence pretending to carry empty boxes of PPEs into a hospital is the perfect metaphor for who he is and what he’s doing: A big box of nothing delivering another box of nothing,” Kimmel said of the clip on his show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Thursday night.

However, in the full video taken by C-SPAN, Pence carries several boxes from a van to the nursing home before being told the rest of the boxes in the van are empty. Pence does not actually carry any of the empty boxes.

Kimmel deleted a clip of the monologue from Twitter earlier on Friday, after questions from various media outlets.