US President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani ended up getting flak online after sharing a meme alleging that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar was spotted at a terrorist training camp.
The meme in question, which was debunked by fact-checker PolitiFact last year, features a black-and-white photo of a woman holding a gun, with the following caption: "Here is your precious Muslim congresswoman at a Al’ Qaida training camp in Somalia".
Said photo, however, while being authentic, was taken at a military training campus in Somalia in 1978, some three years before Omar was born, as the fact-checker noted.
"Can we get rest of this picture?" Giuliani inquired while sharing the aforementioned meme with his sizeable Twitter audience.
This photo was taken three years before Ilhan Omar was born, as PolitiFact reported last year. https://t.co/zJz5LQ3WQT pic.twitter.com/D9YeDbza12
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 22, 2020
Rudy Giuliani, the President’s attorney, tweets racist misinformation. This photo was taken four years before Rep. Ilhan Omar was born. pic.twitter.com/He5ObqOQSa
— Gabe Schneider (@gabemschneider) July 22, 2020
And while Giuliani's tweet has apparently since been deleted, a number of social media users proceeded to criticize and mock him over this move.
Is this Rudy? pic.twitter.com/anEn6gqyoQ
— Karen Ford 🍁 (@KarenMentonFord) July 22, 2020
I understand Mr. Giulliani is a lawyer. Don’t they have Ethics Committees that cover deliberately misleading stuff?
— Mike Humphrey (@MichaelJHumphr) July 22, 2020
Thank you. @RudyGiuliani has turned into the biggest joke from a once respected man, it is SAD!
— Resist1986 (@resist1986) July 22, 2020
Falling for long debunked disinformation is peak Giuliani.
— 𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕝𝕝 𝕃𝕠𝕟𝕘 (@floopjack) July 22, 2020
In March 2019, Giuliani also shared what the Independent described as a "misleading video clip" featuring Omar, with the caption alleging that the congresswoman "admits to taking terrorism classes".
What is she laughing at in recalling her terrorism classes? This represents the future of the Democrat Party? God help us. https://t.co/Qoo2UMBGN1
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) March 22, 2019
As the newspaper points out, however, Omar "studied political science and international relations at North Dakota State University" and "has discussed a class she took at the school in which students learned about the 'ideology' of terrorism".
