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Donald Trump’s presidential re-election campaign has repeatedly produced manipulated online content over the past week.
The Trump campaign ran a series of Facebook ads that featured the president’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, looking older than the 77-year-old former vice president. The announcements coincide with one of the president’s favorite lines of attack for Biden: that he is too old and ill to run for president. (Trump is 74 years old).
The Facebook ad read: “President Trump knows that the fake news outlets will NEVER accurately report his position in the Sleepy Joe polls. We want the truth, and we need to hear it directly from REAL Americans, like YOU. “
The images, analyzed by HuffPost, show that an image of Biden had been edited to make him appear older, darkening his skin and emphasizing imperfections.
On Monday, the campaign’s Trump War Room Twitter account tweeted a doctored video that appeared to show Biden saying, “You will not be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” The video was tagged as “manipulated media” by Twitter.
The video was actually a clip of Biden citing the Trump campaign.
“Trump and Pence are working on this and I find it fascinating: Quote, ‘You will not be safe in Joe Biden’s America.’ And what is your proof? The violence that we are seeing in the United States of Donald Trump, ”said Biden in the original quote.
Biden’s campaign also responded to the manipulated clip on Twitter through a senior adviser, Symone Sanders.
Symone D. Sanders
(@SymoneDSanders)The Trump campaign manipulated a video of @Joe Bidentoday’s speech because they couldn’t challenge the content of the speech. This is your game. They cannot and will not compete based on the facts.
Dan Scavino, a former Trump aide who currently serves as the White House deputy chief of communications staff, posted a doctored video that appeared to show Biden backing Trump. the video was flagged by Twitter and then deactivated on the site. The Washington Post vertical factchecker gave the video four pinochios, the highest rating for a false claim or argument. The original tweet garnered more than 2.4 million views.
Trump’s campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told the Washington Post that the video was “obviously a parody.”
Nor has it just been the Trump campaign. A clip of liberal activist Ady Barkan speaking with Biden was manipulated and posted by the Republican House Whip Steve Scalise’s office. The video appeared to show Biden saying he would redirect police funds, but it was taken out of context. Barkan actually asked if he supported redirecting some funds from the police to mental health services. Twitter also flagged that video.
Barkan aggressively shouted the ad and demanded that it be removed. Twitter also flagged it and Scalise’s office finally delivered.
Steve Scalise
(@SteveScalise)While Joe Biden clearly said “yes” twice to the question of his support for diverting money from the police, we will honor the request for @AdyBarkan and remove your interview portion from our video.
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