President Trump blasted House Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats on Twitter Thursday after they posted a “kids in cages” photo on Twitter and deleted it after realizing it was from the Obama era.
“Democrats had to quickly take down a tweet called ‘Kids In Cages, Inhumane Treatment at the Border,’ because the horrible picture used was from the Obama years. Very embarrassing!” Trump tweeted, tagging Fox & Friends.
The president’s tweet was in response to a misstep the House Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats made earlier this week. The committee used a 2014 photo to advertise its Wednesday hearing titled: “Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border.” It ultimately deleted the tweet, but not before the Trump War Room account took notice.
“House Democrats are promoting their ‘civil rights’ hearing on ‘kids in cages’ and ‘inhumane treatment’ with a photo from 2014, when Joe Biden was Vice President,” Trump War Room organizers wrote. “So dishonest!”
House Oversight Republicans ‘account also took notice, once again reminding the public that the photo is from the Obama era: “You all know that’s a picture from 2014, right? Remind us who was President then.”
Tim Murtaugh, Director of communications for Trump’s reelection campaign, also called out Democrats for attempting to mislead the public.
“Continuing to prove that Dems are only playing politics with the border crisis, House Democrats promoted a hearing on ‘kids in cages’ with a photo taken in 2014,” he wrote.
Notably, Democrats did not make a fuss over the “crisis” – which they claimed was manufactured – and unsettling photos until President Trump took office.
This is far from the first time Democrats have used a misleading photo to advance their political narrative on immigration.
Last summer, journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tweeted a photo of a crying child in a cage and wrote: “This is what happens when a government believes people are ‘illegal.’ Kids in cages.”
The photo went viral, but as the public quickly discovered, it was not authentic. It was actually taken from staged protest that took place outside of Dallas City Hall just days before.
Despite that, Vargas defended his position:
Telling me that I shouldn’t post an image that, as it happened, was from a protest that staged what is actually happening at the border is like saying actors shouldn’t portray characters and situations based in real life,” Vargas wrote on Twitter. “This is not a ’cause’ for me. This is real.