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The video, released Tuesday, shows a man holding a plastic bag full of ballot-like papers, which he doused with a flammable liquid and set fire. The person, whose face is never shown, claims that the 80 fake “ballots” are “all for President Trump” in the video. Although the location is not mentioned in the video, the newspaper careers are from Virginia Beach, Virginia.
However, the ballots are not real. The city of Virginia Beach said the papers are clearly sample ballots, rather than official ballots, as they lack the “barcode markings that are on all official ballots,” according to a statement released Tuesday afternoon. . The statement showed an official ballot and compared it to a screenshot of the fake video.
Christine Lewis, an assistant secretary for Virginia Beach, told CNN that her office was quick to highlight the hoax in an effort to prevent the spread of misinformation.
The city’s communications director, Julie Hill, added that police and fire investigators are now investigating the matter.
Despite being discredited on Tuesday, the video continued to be shared on social media. The video eventually made its way to right-wing media sites like Gateway Pundit, which posted a version of the clip on Wednesday afternoon. Eric Trump shared the video around 3:40 p.m. Wednesday.
The version that Eric Trump shared alone had about 1.2 million views. CNN found three other accounts that posted the same video that had more than 115,000 views combined.
Eric Trump shared the video by retweeting an account that posted it. The account that Eric Trump retweeted has now been suspended, which means that the video is no longer viewable on Eric Trump’s feed.
The Gateway Pundit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
