The communications manager for President Donald Trump‘s campaign tried to continue the narrative that the “media doesn’t select the president” by tweeting a photo of a newspaper declaring Al Gore had won the presidency back in 2000.
However, as it was quickly pointed out, that newspaper front page is fake.
The 2020 election was called by several news outlets for former Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday. Despite this, the Trump campaign has not conceded the election. News outlets routinely call elections before the votes are certified.
Tim Murtaugh tweeted on Sunday a photo of a Trump campaign headquarters that was plastered with dozens of front pages purportedly from the Washington Times.
The front pages had a headline that said “PRESIDENT GORE,” referring to the election between former President George W. Bush and Al Gore. It seems the tweet was trying to mock the media for getting an election call wrong—but the message fell flat because the front page was fake.
The Washington Times was quick to note that it never ran that headline, and added that the photo had been doctored.
“Those photos have been doctored. The Washington Times never ran a ‘President Gore’ headline,” the Washington Times Twitter account wrote, replying to Murtaugh’s tweet.
In a follow–up tweet, the Washington Times said it had reached out to Murtaugh about the fake front pages.
Murtaugh has since deleted the tweet, and told CNN reporter Oliver Darcy that the photos were “fake news.” He told Axios that he didn’t realize the front page was fake and deleted the tweet after being told that.
