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Viral Politics

Republican hyperbole about Biden is so wild, people believe a GOP senator said he wanted to ‘abolish lasagna’

Real and fake versions of Joni Ernst’s take on Biden’s plans are equally believable.

Photo of Claire Goforth

Claire Goforth

Abolish Lasagna over a photograph of lasagna

On Wednesday, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) delivered Republicans’ pre-rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s address to the nation.

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Ernst presented a sign of what she deemed “Liberal Fantasy Island” that was so bizarre people are falling for a photoshopped version of it.

Ernst’s actual “Liberal Fantasy Island” sign included real liberal proposals, such as “Green New Deal,” “expand the court,” and “state of Washington, D.C.

The photoshopped version said “sex blimps,” “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “only gay people get to go to restaurants,” and “abolish lasagna.”

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The sign was so believable that “abolish lasagna” soon started trending. It probably helped that Republicans have lately made a meal out of falsely claiming that Biden planned to impose limits on meat consumption.

“Wait is this a real thing or a joke I cannot even tell anymore these days,” said @NalgeneGuy.

https://twitter.com/natsechobbyist/status/1387553099905110017?s=20
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https://twitter.com/OldLnghornBroad/status/1387570347629760516?s=20
https://twitter.com/Wyman856/status/1387542288381906944?s=20

Most people figured it out, eventually. Some had to seek an assist from fact-checking site Snopes, which actually took the time to debunk it—that’s how many people believed it.

Many brought Garfield jokes, tagged themselves (most popular: Sex blimps), and suggested that some of the items could be band names.

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https://twitter.com/AlyssaFafel/status/1387538118723706880?s=20
https://twitter.com/brendan_herlihy/status/1387723010380029952?s=20
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https://twitter.com/imogenbadger/status/1387732052682887174?s=20
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https://twitter.com/FormerDirtDart/status/1387538256829550595?s=20
https://twitter.com/mrheta/status/1387535730319060994?s=20
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https://twitter.com/alexxlstewart/status/1387538396004839426?s=20

Disappointing to some, Biden didn’t even mention lasagna in his speech.