Dinesh D'Souza gets duped: Tweets photoshopped photo of Hillary Clinton with Confederate flag

Right-wing star instructs Twitter to "look closely" at fake image of Clinton posing in front of the flag

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published July 7, 2015 4:45PM (EDT)

Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza tweeted out a fake picture of a young Hillary Clinton posing in front of a Confederate Flag, today. The right-wing star instructed his nearly 200,000 Twitter followers to "Look closely at this Hillary photo; isn't that a Confederate flag behind her on the bookshelf?"

[embedtweet id=618437306769215488]

D'Souza also posted the same image to his Facebook page.

But as Dan McLoughlin pointed out, the original photo makes clear that the Confederate flag was photoshopped into the 1960s image of the future first lady, senator, and secretary of state:

[embedtweet id=618439215785771009]

In 2014, D'Souza was sentenced to eight months in a community confinement center as part of five years of probation for violating federal campaign finance laws. In an interview in the latest issue of the New York Times Magazine, D'Souza said "If you put my rap sheet alongside the Clinton rap sheet, I think that would be almost a prima facie case that they have gotten away with far more than I have."

UPDATE: D'Souza issued a "correction" on Facebook, leaving the photoshopped image of the Confederate flag up but writing, "even if the #ConfederateFlag was edited into this Hillary photo, WHAT is going on with those glasses and that hairdo?":

 

Even if the #ConfederateFlag was edited into this Hillary photo, WHAT is going on with those glasses and that hairdo?

Posted by Dinesh D'Souza on Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The conservative's "correction" merely swapped his casual racist joke for a pithy sexist jab. D'Souza made no apology for publishing the doctored photo although he did cough up a meager "whoops" in an email to the Daily Beast's Olivia Nuzzi:

[embedtweet id = 618495928769581056]


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

MORE FROM Sophia Tesfaye


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2016 Elections Confederate Flag Dinesh Dsouza Hillary Clinton