President Donald Trump’s campaign pressed pause on their political ads in late July to review their messaging and one of the first ads that the campaign has pushed since they returned to the airwaves features multiple doctored images of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The first doctored image in the advertisement features Biden sitting on the ground while a narrator declares, “Deep in the heart of Delaware, Joe Biden sits in his basement alone, hiding, diminished.”
But the photograph of Biden supposably sitting alone in his basement was actually taken in Iowa in December of 2019 and people in the background of the photograph were edited out of the picture.
The photo was taken by Gazette photo editor Liz Martin and the Gazette (an Iowa newspaper that serves Cedar Rapids) reported that the photo was used without their permission. Martin said that Biden was sitting on the floor because he gave up his seat to somebody else.
Just after the fraudulent photograph of Biden in his basement, the ad cuts to a photograph of Biden holding his hand to his forehead. But, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski noted that the photograph appears to be one of Biden speaking and the microphone which he was holding is apparently removed.
Also, it looks like someone photoshopped out a microphone he was holding at an event to make it look like he was…..touching his forehead in an empty room?https://t.co/CgMoUz9Gp9 pic.twitter.com/wJDTHpQyWJ
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) August 5, 2020
Moments later, the narrator announces that “Biden has no answers and after five decades of failure, he never will.” The photograph that the ad closes on a photo of Biden hanging his head, that photograph is of Biden in prayer during a church service in Wilmington, Delaware.
The new Trump ad accidentally shows just how few photos/how little b-roll Biden has produced since March. An image meant to make him look defeated/old is of him praying in church! pic.twitter.com/f7F9MNCLve
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) August 5, 2020
Here’s the full ad from the Trump campaign.
Deep in the heart of Delaware, Joe Biden sits in his basement.
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 5, 2020
Alone. Hiding. Diminished. pic.twitter.com/0QVsbp2iis
Fake photographs and videos have already run rampant as the election season intensifies. A recent video that went viral on Facebook is slowed to make it appear that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is drugged or drunk. Facebook said that they would not remove the viral video, though they labeled it as “partly false.”
The Trump campaign has not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.