Trump staffers tweeted an image of a 'President Gore' front page from 2000 to prove the media gets election calls wrong. But the image was fake.
- Members of US President Donald Trump's campaign team on Sunday shared images of a Washington Times cover from 2000 that supposedly declared Al Gore president.
- Tim Murtaugh, who served as director of communications for Trump's reelection campaign, tweeted on Sunday that the headline was "a reminder that the media doesn't select the President."
- But the publication tweeted that the images were "doctored" and that it "never ran a 'President Gore' headline."
- Insider and its election partner, Decision Desk HQ, projected Biden the winner of the election on Friday, and other major outlets like the Associated Press and CNN called the race for Biden on Saturday.
- Just hours after the Saturday calls, Trump once again tweeted, falsely, that he had won the election.
Both President Donald Trump and his supporters flocked to Twitter over the weekend to slam the media for projecting the Democratic candidate Joe Biden as the president-elect.
To prove that the media had wrongly called elections in the past, Trump campaign staffers tweeted an image of a Washington Times cover from 2000 that declared Al Gore had won that year's presidential election. George W. Bush ultimately beat Gore in a tight race.
But the paper immediately chimed in to say the photos were "doctored."
"The Washington Times never ran a 'President Gore' headline," the publication tweeted.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, Tim Murtaugh, who served as the director of communications for Trump's reelection campaign, on Sunday said the headline was "a reminder that the media doesn't select the President."
Jenna Ellis, who worked as a legal advisor for the campaign, also tweeted the photos and later deleted them.
The Democratic candidate Gore narrowly lost the 2000 election to Bush. Some news outlets mistakenly projected Gore the winner amid a tight race in Florida.
But the Washington Times correctly declared Bush the winner.
Insider and its election partner, Decision Desk HQ, projected Biden the winner of the election on Friday, and other major outlets like the Associated Press and CNN called the race for Biden on Saturday.
Just hours after the Saturday calls, Trump tweeted: "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!"
Trump, his campaign team, and his supporters have since criticized the media for calling the election. Trump has not yet conceded.
Trump previously claimed he had won the election early Wednesday morning.