A Super PAC backing former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for president with more than $100 million is officially embarrassing itself.
Just one day after the Bush Super PAC Right to Rise USA flew a tiny plane with a banner attached to the end of it over 2016 GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s Mobile, Alabama rally, the geniuses backing yet another Bush for president appear to have photoshopped a black man’s hand onto the former Florida governor.
“A flyer put out by the Jeb Bush-supporting SuperPAC Right to Rise USA got a little overzealous promoting the candidate’s diverse appeal this week,” New York Magazine’s Chas Danner wrote. “The mailer, which R2RUSA sent to 86,000 Iowans, was attempting to answer the essential question, ‘Why Jeb?’ and featured the smiling candidate standing with his hands on his hips — except one of the hands definitely wasn’t his, or white. And if you look at his other (right) hand, you can see that it was digitally colored white as well, as the awkward supposed shadows are the same color as the black hand.”
This comes after the election consultant experts supporting Bush from the Super PAC attempted trolling Trump with a small airplane over his Mobile speech—a speech where he was joined on stage by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).
“Moments before Trump was expected to take the stage, a plane flew over the stadium with a banner saying ‘Trump 4 higher taxes. Jeb 4 Prez,’” Business Insider’s Matthew Speiser wrote. “The Washington Post’s Robert Costa reports that the flyover was paid for by the pro-Bush super PAC, Right to Rise.”
On the Super PAC’s website, the pro-Bush organization released a statement arguing that Trump supports higher taxes.
“Right to Rise USA here. Hope you’re enjoying the show tonight. We just wanted to fly by to tell you about the real Donald Trump,” the Super PAC website reads. “Did you know Trump proposed the biggest tax increase in American history? That’s right, Trump called for raising taxes by $5.7 trillion! That’s enough money to put $170,000,000 in every seat at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Imagine what you could do with that! I think Jeb described Trump’s tax hike best: ‘He’s proposed the largest tax increase in mankind’s history, not just our own country’s history.’ Jeb and Trump couldn’t be more different on the issues that matter to conservatives. Trump’s risky and reckless philosophy – one that’s out of step with GOP values – seems to change everyday. On the other hand, Jeb is a lifelong, committed conservative with the results to prove it. As governor of Florida, Jeb cut taxes by $19 billion and helped create 1.3 million new jobs; one of the big reasons Florida had much stronger economic growth than the rest of the nation. Have fun tonight. Jeb for President 2016!”
Of the many hilarious replies to Costa’s Tweet reporting on the pro-Bush Super PAC’s embarrassing trolling attempt, one from a man named Ron Coulter summed it up best: “sad little !Jeb plane….”
Of course, Trump has his own Boeing 757 and another smaller jet in addition to three fully functional helicopters. The pro-Bush group picking this little bucket to troll Trump doesn’t do Bush any favors, especially when the pro-Bush group has more than $100 million in the bank. The Super PAC is run by Mike Murphy, an establishment political consultant who helped Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) lose the 2008 election to Barack Obama.
Bush Super PAC spokesman Paul Lindsay explained that the picture was photoshopped and that the color was accidentally darkened.
“In response to the allegation Saturday afternoon, Right to Rise spokesman Paul Lindsay directed Daily Mail to a tweet showing the original photo of Bush,” the Daily Mail’s Christopher Brennan wrote. “The darkened hand appeared to be caused by a shadow cast from a woman next to the candidate.”
“Mysterious hand revealed. Meant to use Valencia. Fail. Not deleting it from our servers,” Lindsay tweeted.
Compared to the original photo, the hand is darker in the photoshopped version—in which the Bush Super PAC officials put a new background behind the former Florida Governor. Valencia, which Lindsay mentioned in his Tweet admitting his team screwed up on this, is an option in Photoshop that allows users to work with color effects.