Fact check: Image shows altered Norm Macdonald tweet about transgender shooter

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Image shows tweet shared by Norm Macdonald about transgender shooter

A March 29 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a purported tweet from the late comedian Norm Macdonald alongside a tweet shared by USA TODAY.

"What terrifies me is if a tranny were to shoot up a school full of children and kill a bunch of innocent kids," reads the supposed 2016 Macdonald tweet. "Imagine the pain when they're misgendered by the media."

The USA TODAY tweet beneath it reads, "Police on Monday afternoon said that the shooter was a transgender man. Officials had initially misidentified the gender of the shooter. "

The post garnered more than 200 likes in less than a week.

A similar version of the post was shared on Twitter by far-right conspiracy theorist Stew Peters. It was retweeted more than 500 times in less than a week.

Peters is the co-creator of a documentary that falsely claimed COVID-19 was caused by snake venom.

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Our rating: Altered

Macdonald didn't share this tweet. It's an edited version of another tweet the comedian shared in 2016 about the Muslim community.

Image shows edited version of 2016 tweet

Police identified Audrey Hale, a transgender male who reportedly used male pronouns on social media, as the shooter who killed three adults and three children at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27. Hale was confronted and killed by police shortly after the attack began.

There's no evidence Macdonald, who passed away in 2021 after a lengthy battle with cancer, shared any tweet that predicted such an event.

The tweet featured in the Instagram post is not found on Macdonald's Twitter account, which was previously verified but has since lost its verification badge.

It appears to be an edited version of another tweet the comedian shared on Dec. 16, 2016. The timestamps for both match exactly.

Fact check: Posts falsely link edited photo of comedian to Nashville school shooting

"What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans," reads the genuine tweet. "Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims."

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

Reuters and Factcheck.org also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Comedian's tweet altered to reference transgender shooter