A viral Facebook post shared more than 65,000 times claims an MSNBC reporter said on-air, “I hope enough people die from CoronaVirus that it harms Trump’s re-election.”

Verdict: False

There is no record of any MSNBC reporter making the statement on-air. Nor does it appear on any of the outlet’s other platforms.

Fact Check:

The viral post attributes to an unnamed MSNBC journalist a statement expressing hope that the COVID-19 outbreak will hurt President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection chances. At press time, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus has killed more than 7,800 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“MSNBC Actually Said on the air ‘I hope enough people die from CoronaVirus that it harms Trump’s re-election,'” reads the post. “No shame.” (RELATED: Viral Image Claims A Lysol Product Label Proves The Coronavirus Isn’t A ‘New Virus’)

There is, however, no evidence that an MSNBC reporter ever made the statement on-air or elsewhere on the media outlet’s platforms. A search of video clip editing service Grabien turned up no matches for the quote. It does not appear on MSNBC’s website or social media accounts.

Controversial statements by journalists often make headlines when they happen on live news broadcasts. If an MSNBC television personality had made the remark, it would have been picked up by the media, yet no news outlets have reported on it.

According to Snopes, the claim may have originated with a heavily edited video of MSNBC anchor Nicole Wallace and a Princeton University professor in which they made comparisons to Hurricane Katrina. The edited clip, Snopes reported, made it seem like the reporters were making light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Variations of the fake quote have continued to crop up on social media, despite no record of an MSNBC journalist ever making the statement.