GOP Rep Tweeted a Fake Obama Photo. Now He's Mad at Everyone For Pointing It Out
Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar, who championed immigration policies so repugnant his six siblings came out against him in a recent reelection bid, has been on an odd Twitter tear. Last November, the representative clandestinely wedged a Jeffrey Epstein meme into a tweet about the Trump impeachment proceedings, and then followed it up a month later with a rather inscrutable attack aimed at the Clintons on Christmas Eve.
On Tuesday, Gosar continued his conspiracy-minded social-media spree by tweeting a doctored photo of an event that never occurred.
The image appears to show former President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, shaking hands and presumably palling around. In his tweet, the Republican lawmaker made it clear that he dislikes both men very much:
It didn’t take long for reporters—and casual Twitter observers—to debunk the photo as an obvious photoshop. CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski was one of the first to note that the photo was a poorly edited version of a real photo between Obama and former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Obama, some reporters noted, never met Rouhani at any diplomatic functions during his eight-year presidency, and certainly never stood before a media gaggle, smiling and shaking the Iranian president’s hand. Freelance reporter Daniel Medina was also quick to point out that Rouhani is still very much the president of Iran—something that appeared to evade Gosar’s thought process when he wrote that the “world is a better place without these guys in power.”
After his edited photo was debunked, the congressman immediately went on the defensive, attacking “dim-witted” reporters for misinterpreting the faked image he pushed onto the web from his verified account, giving it an air of presumptive authenticity.
With the 2020 presidential election on the horizon and the escalating friction between the U.S. and Iran in the wake of the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, Gosar’s tweet poked the hornet’s nest when political tensions are at an apex. And with cyber security experts warning about the perils of misinformation campaigns in the build up to the 2020 elections, Gosar’s antics mirror the exact kind of online manipulation that might be carried out by a bad actor looking to create chaos and division—except that he’s an American elected official.
If anything, the Republican party seems to see misinformation as a useful tactic in gaining support for its current military endeavors in the Middle East. Just last week, vice president Mike Pence falsely claimed that Soleimani helped orchestrate the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It appears Gosar has merely taken a page out of the same book.
Originally Appeared on GQ