Twitter users on Tuesday circulated a picture of a college-age Hillary Clinton sitting beside a Confederate flag. There's just one, big problem: The photo has been digitally altered to include the Confederate flag, as Mediaite reports.
Here's the original photo, taken by Life magazine in 1969, juxtaposed with the doctored image. In the original, the then-Wellesley College class leader Clinton talked "about student protests, which she supported in her commencement speech," according to The Guardian.
Genius Dinesh D'Souza posts photoshopped picture of Hillary Clinton with a confederate flag pic.twitter.com/CVbzKH2E83
- Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) July 7, 2015
Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, said last month that the Confederate flag was a "symbol of our nation's racist past." As controversy over the Confederate flag's presence at the South Carolina Statehouse grounds grew in the aftermath of the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, Clinton said the flag "shouldn't fly anywhere."
The South Carolina Senate voted Tuesday to remove the flag from the Statehouse grounds, sending the bill to the House.
But for Clinton critics thinking they caught a classic case of hypocrisy, the photo was incredibly popular. Prominent conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza's tweet on the photo was retweeted more than 550 times. It's unclear who originally doctored the photograph to include the flag, but D'Souza's tweet helped fan the fire. He also shared the tweet on his Facebook account.
Look closely at this Hillary photo; isn't that a Confederate flag behind her on the bookshelf? pic.twitter.com/Og3Q0IKREP
- Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) July 7, 2015
CORRECTION: Disregard the photoshopped Confederate flag in the background of the Hillary photo and simply focus on those glasses and hairdo
- Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) July 7, 2015
@HillaryClinton remember this photo? Nice Confederate flag in the background #fail #ConfederateFlag pic.twitter.com/DH3b5bt5pc
- Phillip Romero (@PhillyCheese007) July 7, 2015
Forget @HillaryClinton, note the FLAG of racism & oppression on the shelf to her right. Oops! pic.twitter.com/qce5xgXyJS
- Tim Sheryl (@TimSheryl) July 6, 2015
Is that the Confederate Flag n Hilly's office @dailykos @Salon @HillaryClinton #UniteBlue @DNCWomen @DNCYouthCouncil pic.twitter.com/lZOSgmZejZ
- Charles Stutesman (@CharlieStutes) July 5, 2015
Person who went to the trouble of adding the Confederate flag into a Hillary Clinton photo, ask yourself what's missing in your life dude.
- mheido (@mheido03) July 7, 2015
Plenty of reasons to give this old photo of 1969 Hillary Clinton a side-eye, a photoshop confederate flag isn't one. pic.twitter.com/QRQzROX8aA
- Brian Gray (aka ürb) (@urbanbohemian) July 7, 2015