BBC sorry for interview with fake senator

The BBC has issued an apology and started an investigation after airing an interview with a man who posed as Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

The network said in a statement that the unidentified man was interviewed on the “Newshour” radio program Feb. 26, adding that the appearance appeared to have been a “deliberate hoax.”

The statement said that the BBC had apologized to Booker and that the company was looking into “what went wrong” to ensure it does not happen again.

The interview aired once, live at 3 p.m. Eastern and mostly in the United States and a few other places around the world, a spokesman for the BBC said Thursday. A second edition of “Newshour,” which airs at 4 p.m., was also broadcast in the United States and around the world, but without the interview, he said.

Booker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. A BBC spokesman confirmed an on-air apology was made in the “Newshour” program Monday.

When the interview aired last week, several listeners tweeted their concerns about the show, featuring the impostor discussing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

“Listening to the @bbcworldservice Newshour on @wnyc and trying to figure out how they did an entire interview with someone they introduced as Sen. Cory Booker, who I’m pretty sure was definitely not Sen. Booker, and didn’t realize it,” said one woman.

Another woman tweeted at Booker last week asking if the lawmaker had appeared on the program.

“Someone sounding nothing like you and without your speech pattern was claiming to be you today,” she said.

Booker is no stranger to the topic the impostor spoke about. He has called the death of Khashoggi “appalling” and said he joined colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee to seek sanctions against anyone involved in the “horrific” act.