John McCain blasts Sean Hannity for peddling 'a fake news story' alleging ties to Russia

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Thursday blasted Sean Hannity over a fake news story the conservative Fox News host posted on his Twitter feed.

Hannity on Wednesday tweeted—then deleted—an article purporting to show that “globalist war criminal John McCain requested campaign donations from the Russians!”

“Wow if true,” Hannity wrote.

The story, as Mediaite notes, is not true. It was instead based on a 2008 fundraising appeal that was accidentally sent to recently-deceased Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin.

In a statement, spokeswoman Julie Varallo implored Hannity to “correct the record” on his erroneous tweet.

“It is unfortunate that Sean Hannity would attack Senator John McCain over a fake news story,” she said, “It’s wrong and he should correct the record.”

Read the statement below, via NBC News’ Frank Thorp V (@franthorp):

UPDATE Feb. 23 -- 12:28 p.m.:

Hannity on Thursday apologized to the Arizona senator, writing in a post that he "retweeted an inaccurate article."