Trump Campaign Busted For Deceptively Manipulating Biden Photos In New Ad
President Donald Trump’s latest attack ad depicts former Vice President Joe Biden as isolated and alone, “diminished” and “hiding” in a basement at his Delaware home.
But as sharp observers noted on Twitter, the images were heavily manipulated ― and the one of him “alone” and “in his basement” was actually taken in a room full of people (pre-pandemic) that was neither in a basement nor even in his home.
Here’s the Trump ad:
Deep in the heart of Delaware, Joe Biden sits in his basement.
Alone. Hiding. Diminished. pic.twitter.com/0QVsbp2iis— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) August 5, 2020
The image of Biden sitting on the floor “alone” and “hiding” was actually from a football-watching party in Iowa. The background was manipulated to make it look as if Biden were sitting on the floor of an empty room:
About that new Trump ad alleging that Biden is “Alone. Hiding. Diminished.”
The clip at the four second mark is edited to make it look like he is sitting on the floor of his basement alone.
But it’s from an Iowa event last December. The room was full. See below: pic.twitter.com/t6ZcUHUXfZ— Philip Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 5, 2020
Another image was of Biden at an outdoor event, in sunglasses and with a mic in hand. The original shows him pause to scratch his head or adjust the sunglasses, but the Trump campaign altered it to remove the mic and place him in a “basement.”
They also gave him pale and sickly skin:
Biden was photographed touching his forehead while conducting a town hall at an Iowa nature preserve in September 2019.
The Trump campaign edited out his mic and the trees to portray him as stuck in his Delaware basement...though kept his sunglasses. https://t.co/3XT2tmJZHj pic.twitter.com/I2zgIL1x0M— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 5, 2020
And in another case, they isolated an image of Biden with his head down and in prayer at a church to make him appear down and dejected:
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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
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 5, 2020
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.