This afternoon, for the first time after a six-month suspension without pay, Brian Williams returned to the air. As live news anchor at MSNBC, Williams covered Pope Francis’ visit to the United States, which stopped at Andrews Air Force Base. But he did not mention why he had been absent, much less demoted to MSNBC.

Williams had anchored NBC’s Nightly News for 11 years when he admitted to embellishing a story from when he covered Iraq in 2003. NBC replaced Williams on Nightly News with Lester Holt and reportedly had him accept a cut in his eight-figure salary, though kept its investigation on him under wraps.

“And good day, I’m Brian Williams at MSNBC headquarters here in New York,” he said. “In a short time, Pope Francis will arrive in this country for the first time.” And that was that — he was back.

[Image via MSNBC]