In a desperate attempt to revive the manufactured Benghazi “scandal” in advance of its one-year anniversary on Wednesday, Fox News hyped a misleading ABC interview with Benghazi witness Gregory Hicks that was discredited by the State Department.

Fox & Friends hyped former Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya Hicks' claim that he had been “punished” for speaking out about Benghazi, furthering Fox's campaign of scandal-mongering about the Benghazi attacks in advance of Wednesday's anniversary. On September 9, the show aired a small portion of Hicks' ABC interview, in which he claimed that he had been “punished” and his career had been stalled following his congressional testimony on the attacks, while on-screen text claimed that “nearly one year later, still no answers” on Benghazi:

But Fox left out the portion of the interview where George Stephanopoulos read part of the State Department response to Hicks' claim, which discredited Hicks' remarks. State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach responded to Hicks' interview by telling ABC News that “The State Department has not punished Mr. Hicks in any way,” and explained that Hicks' departure from his position in Libya was voluntary and that the State Department is currently “working with him through the normal personnel process and assignment timetable to identify his next permanent assignment.” Gerlach concluded that “the State Department does not tolerate or sanction retaliation against whistleblowers on ANY ISSUE, including Benghazi.”

Fox's campaign went so far as to equate the Benghazi attacks, in which four Americans were killed, with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, in which nearly 3,000 Americans were killed. Co-host Gretchen Carlson conflated the two anniversaries, saying “this week, coming up on Wednesday, it's the one-year anniversary of not only 9-11, but Benghazi and what happened there,” and later in the show Fox & Friends aired an image of events that are distracting Americans from the conflict in Syria, including the “9/11 & Benghazi Anniversaries” this Wednesday.