On April 26, conservative radio host John Muir of Green Bay, WI, claimed that “Democrats, many of them, think that the average black voter is stupid” and pointed to a fabricated quote from former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as evidence.

Muir was taking advantage of Kanye West’s endorsement of far-right commentator Candace Owens, who has made a career out of lying about race and attacking Democrats, to argue that Democrats manipulate black people for their votes. Muir followed up by saying, “Hillary Clinton about 10, 15 years ago came out and talked about how the African-American voter is easily manipulated because they're not intelligent.” This claim appears to derive from an internet meme about Democratic voters that has been debunked: It held that Clinton said in 2005, “Look, the average Democrat voter is just plain stupid. They’re easy to manipulate. That’s the easy part.” And it’s simply not true.

Muir’s irresponsible commentary comes at a time when some local radio stations across the country have been spreading fake news to their audiences.

From the April 26 edition of WTAQ’s The John Muir Show:

JOHN MUIR (HOST): It seems that Democrats, many of them, think that the average black voter is stupid. If you disagree with that statement, I can give you Hillary Clinton about 10, 15 years ago came out and talked about how the African-American voter is easily manipulated because they're not intelligent. And that's one of the leaders of the Democratic Party, or at least was until very recent times. They assume -- the Democrats assume that the African-American voters will not catch onto the manipulation, but many African-Americans do see through it.

A reader tip contributed to this story.