Trump campaign tweets doctored image of Washington Monument being demolished
The tweet references a report made to the District of Columbia’s mayor discussing potential changes to government-owned assets.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Trump War Room Twitter account - which is run by Donald Trump's campaign team - tweeted a bizarre photoshopped image of the Washington Monument being torn down alongside the accusation that it would be an image of "Joe Biden's America" on Monday afternoon.
The tweeted image is made to look like a screengrab from CNN, including a chryon that reads "DEMOLITION OF WASHINGTON MONUMENT UNDERWAY." It names the location of the photo as the "DC Autonomous Zone," suggesting the nation's capitol would become an anarchist-run zone similar to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle earlier this year.
To be clear; neither Mr Biden nor his campaign have called for or supported any effort to demolish the Washington Monument.
The tweet was in response to a report given to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser's office that was tasked with examining the names of various DC-government controlled assets within the district and drawing up recommendations for whether those assets were in need of renaming, removing or moving to different locations.
The Washington Monument, as well as a statue of Ben Franklin and the Jefferson Memorial were included in the list of assets examined.
The report - compiled by the DC Facilities and Commemorative Expressions Working Group - was established to review government-owned facilities and to make recommendations on changes that were needed to ensure those facilities were in line with the district's values. Specifically, the assets were being evaluated for their contribution to the oppression of African Americans or people of color.
The report included evaluations of nearly 80 streets, 10 neighborhoods and two libraries, as well as many district-owned buildings and the monuments.
Republicans were quick to jump on the report and portray it as evidence that Democrats want to destroy the nation's history.
“That sound you hear is smart Democratic operatives banging their heads against the wall because this is what we call a softball for the other side,” Republican strategist Brian Walsh said.
The report is available in part on the DC Mayor's Office's website, but it appears the section detailing the group's findings on statues and memorials has been removed. The statues and memorials were designated "asset group 3" within the report, but that section is not included in the version of the report available on the website.
Neither Ms Bowser's office nor the DCFaces working group were immediately available for comment.
Republican strategists attempting to frame the report's findings as an election issue are mostly fearmongering attempts to drive voters to the polls; regardless of the outcome on Election Day, Ms Bowser will still be the mayor of Washington DC after the election, and DC's elected officials will still ultimately have say over how district-owned assets are maintained.
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