The network thought it had booked Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, a former Arizona congresswoman running for another stint in Congress. The bookers had instead lined up state Sen. Barbara L’Italien, a Democrat running in a crowded open congressional race in Massachusetts. | POLITICO screengrab Massachusetts Democrat dupes Fox and Friends

A Massachusetts congressional candidate pulled a bait-and-switch on a Fox News talk show Monday morning, using the president's preferred morning show as a platform to blast his administration’s policy of immigrant family separations.

The network thought it had booked Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, a former Arizona congresswoman running for another stint in Congress, for its Fox and Friends First morning show — the idea was that Kirkpatrick was a Democrat who supported the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.


But the bookers had instead lined up state Sen. Barbara L’Italien, a Democrat running in a crowded open congressional race in Massachusetts.

And she had an entirely different message in mind.

“I’m actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump,” L’Italien said, after anchor Jillian Mele asked her why she supports ICE. “I feel what’s happening at the border is wrong. I’m a mother of four and I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane.”

“I’m actually Barbara L’Italien. I’m a state senator representing a large immigrant community and running for Congress in Massachusetts,” she continued, as the chyron below her read “Ann Kirkpatrick.”

The Fox and Friends anchors looked confused as L’Italien continued on, demanding the administration “stop abducting children” and “putting kids in cages.”

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“But that practice has stopped at this point, Ms. Kirkpatrick, right?” anchor Rob Schmitt asked, continuing to call L’Italien by the wrong name. The network had run a short video package of Kirkpatrick taking flak for a pro-ICE position before L’Italien came on air.

“Stop using Latino children to score political points with your base,” L’Italien said. “Again, my name is Barbara L'Italien and I refuse to believe that our only options are only borders or crime--”

“Who is this?” Schmitt asked as the network ended L’Italien’s shot.

“Well that didn’t go as planned,” Schmitt said before the show cut to commercial.

Shortly after, the show issued apologies both on-air and in a statement for the mix-up. Fox and Friends First Executive Producer Desiree Dunne said Fox had booked Kirkpatrick through Joe Katz, her press contact on file — and the name of L'Italien's press contact.

“This morning we invited Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick to appear on Fox & Friends First through her press contact on file Joe Katz, who accepted the invitation on Kirkpatrick’s behalf. Katz followed with an email confirming the segment, which also included background information and a campaign logo for Ann Kirkpatrick," Dunne said. "Despite speaking to producers prior to the interview, L’Italien did not identify herself as anything other than Kirkpatrick until she was live on air, at which point we ended the interview.”

L'Italien's campaign fired back, saying Fox did not do its "due diligence" and reached out to her campaign under the impression it was Kirkpatrick's staff. It appears L'Italien's campaign did not correct the booker.

"Fox News is where you go when you want to talk to Donald Trump, and Barbara felt she had an obligation to her constituents to take advantage of that opportunity. But this would not have happened to an actual news station. Fox's lack of attention to the facts normally is a disaster for the country, it just so happened that today it was embarrassing for them," her campaign said in a statement explaining what happened.

But there is a link between the Kirkpatrick and L’Italien campaigns. Katz last worked for Kirkpatrick in 2010, he told POLITICO in an email.

“She is currently on her fourth federal campaign since then,” Katz said. “I have no idea why on Earth I am their press contact on file.”

For her part, Kirkpatrick denied the assertion she is pro-ICE. The Arizona Democrat said she is "disgusted" by Trump's immigration policies in a statement released after the flap on Monday.

"This morning, Fox News and other outlets put out false reports on my position on ICE without a single word from me," Kirkpatrick said. "ICE needs top-to-bottom reform. Trump's policies — especially around family separation — are illegal and should end immediately."

A spokesperson for Kirkpatrick said there is no one by the name of Joe Katz on her current campaign, and that the Kirkpatrick campaign ignored a request from Fox and Friends on Saturday.

“There was no conversation made between our campaign and Fox,” said Kirkpatrick spokeswoman Abigail O’Brien.

As the Fox and Friends segment caught fire online, Schmitt took to Twitter in an attempt to clear up the confusion.

“Fun morning. We expected democrat Anne Kirkpatrick (left) but got hijacked by Democrat @teambarbara w/ a publicity stunt,” Schmitt said in a tweet. “Desperate for attention - @teambarbara pretended to be someone else to multiple people within Fox News and get on tv.”

