Fox News offered Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) a platform to attack former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, raising questions about the network's willingness to be manipulated using unverified quotes in order to harm a potential presidential candidate.

During the September 3 edition of Hannity, Paul joined host Sean Hannity to discuss the threat of the Islamic State to the U.S. After Hannity asked him if IS “has declared war on us,” Paul blamed Clinton for the Islamic State's rise, asserting that “in the past, you know, Hillary Clinton has said ISIS is not a threat to the United States.”

Fox's Bill Hemmer later hosted Paul on the September 5 edition of America's Newsroom, where Paul again claimed Clinton has “been out there saying that ISIS is not a threat, and so not a threat to America. Those I think were her exact words.” After Hemmer asked Paul whether Clinton actually said the terror group was not a threat, Paul was unable to pin down where the alleged quote was from, but responded that it was his “belief” that “a couple of months ago there was a quote saying ISIS was not a threat to America.” Hemmer subsequently failed to follow up on Paul's lack of specifics.

Hemmer's question was a critical one for any journalist to ask, but his failure to demand the specific quote and Hannity's total acceptance of Paul's claim is troubling. By not pushing for proof of Paul's claim, Fox News is letting itself be used as a conduit for misinformation from one potential presidential candidate to another.