False claims and conspiracy theories seem to be the primary message of GOP. The Trump accord Afghanistan withdrawals has been no exception.
Few images from Afghanistan caused a greater stir than the video scores of Republicans falsely claimed showed the Taliban executing a man by hanging him from a helicopter.
But perhaps unsurprisingly, fact-checking easily proved the Republican pushed narrative to be completely false.
A viral video claiming to show a man being brutally hanged from a helicopter in Kandahar was likely an attempt to fix a flag over a public building, not a hanging. A separate video of the incident shows the man is clearly alive and waving in the air.pic.twitter.com/x6T5iDhpc9— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan Sardarizadeh) 1630420462
The video has been viewed millions of times in recent days, fueled by conservatives' ghastly claims of an execution by the Taliban using an American Black Hawk helicopter.
Republicans have seized upon the narrative Democratic President Joe Biden is responsible for the grisly scene, like in the tweet below from conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler.
If this is what it looks like\u2026 the Taliban hanging somebody from an American Blackhawk\u2026 I could vomit. Joe Biden is responsible.pic.twitter.com/muHLEi3UvK— Liz Wheeler (@Liz Wheeler) 1630359825
The rumor mill eventually expanded to theorizing who the hanging man was, with one Indian journalist claiming he was an American interpreter in a since-deleted tweet.
Several prominent Republican politicians and media figures, like Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Republican Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw and TV personality Meghan McCain, further amplified the disinformation, sharing it on Twitter to their hordes of followers.
The clip, however, is just one small out-of-context piece of a longer video of the scene obtained by Afghan news agency Aśvaka, which shows clearly the man hanging from the Black Hawk is alive and waving his arms around, as seen below.
\u06a9\u0646\u062f\u0647\u0627\u0631 \u062a\u0627\u0632\u0647 \u0635\u0648\u0631\u062a \u062d\u0627\u0644pic.twitter.com/HM2CP2aZHg— \u0627\u062d\u0645\u062f \u0635\u0627\u062d\u0628 (@\u0627\u062d\u0645\u062f \u0635\u0627\u062d\u0628) 1630335500
The hanging man has been confirmed to be a Taliban soldier waving a Taliban flag, which he is trying to affix to the roof of a government building in the city of Kandahar, according to fact-checking site Snopes, news agency Reuters and the BBC.
But while Senator Cruz did subsequently delete his tweet about the video following the fact-check, several other conservative voices continued sharing it anyway, including Fox News anchor Sean Hannity.
Former Republican President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. even changed his Twitter banner photo to one mocking Biden for the supposed execution.
Donald Trump Jr. has changed his Twitter banner to a Biden-mocking image featuring a man appearing to be hanged from a helicopter, though, again, the helicopter execution story was imaginary.pic.twitter.com/zcEzg5VI1b— Daniel Dale (@Daniel Dale) 1630506127
On Twitter people were angered, but certainly not surprised by this latest Republican disinformation campaign.
This is insane that they are using this— Henrynathanmia (@Henrynathanmia) 1630460810
I don\u2019t know why everyone is shocked that the king of Faux News is doing fake news. It\u2019s totally on brand for him because it Kris his viewers angry enough to not verify a thing he\u2019s saying. \u00af\_(\u30c4)_/\u00afpic.twitter.com/ZMSJCZNbdo— jeepgirl (@jeepgirl) 1630461582
So @SenTedCruz @RepDanCrenshaw @nypost and others lied. I'm shocked.— Matt Gaetz's Venmo (@Matt Gaetz's Venmo) 1630442859
Cc: @DanCrenshawTX waiting on that apology— FreddyG (@FreddyG) 1630438340
It's just incredible how dumb Fox news think their conservative audience ishttps://twitter.com/mmfa/status/1433068283905859586\u00a0\u2026— Kombiz Lavasany (@Kombiz Lavasany) 1630511736
First, the guy is waving, you can clearly see it, and second, who\u2019d use a helicopter to hang someone when a tree is so much easier?— Keith Berson (@Keith Berson) 1630438291
Fox just airing Taliban propaganda at this point.https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1432882289604653058\u00a0\u2026— robert is vaccinated (@robert is vaccinated) 1630467317
As long as something fits his narrative, Sean couldn't possibly care less if it's true.\n\nI have no remaining sympathy or tolerance for anyone dumb enough to watch this false propaganda trash.\n\n#FoxIsNotNewshttps://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1432882289604653058\u00a0\u2026— Khashoggi\u2019s Ghost (@Khashoggi\u2019s Ghost) 1630462803
The right wing effort to set a narrative regardless of all facts/context about how the withdrawal was executed is sick. It is relentlessly devoid of Trump\u2019s role and any sense of shared American experience/mission and committed solely to rewriting history/campaigning on terrorism— Luke Zaleski (@Luke Zaleski) 1630506303
As of this writing, neither Hannity, Crenshaw or McCain have deleted or clarified their false tweets about the helicopter video.
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