Democrats Are Not Burning Flags On Election Day In Honor Of An Expected ‘Blue Wave’ [Debunked]
Democrats are not burning flags in honor of an expected Election Day “blue wave” while CNN anchor Don Lemon laughs about it. The video meme is a hoax that makes use of readily available video manipulation software, and it has no basis in fact, the Daily Beast reports. In fact, it’s just one of several Election Day hoaxes making the rounds on social media.
The original video appears to have come from Twitter user @RealDanJordan. In a tweet that has since been deleted, Jordan posted the doctored video with the following caption.
“Do not give these people the satisfaction of a win on Tuesday. Vote #Republican. Help @POTUS wipe the smile off the faces of these globalist elites.”
As of this writing, Twitter appears to have taken down the fake video, although screenshots remain. Daily Beast writer Will Sommer says that the video remains on Facebook, but a brief search of Facebook for “Democrats burning flags” turned up only news articles debunking the video, rather than any instances of the video itself.
The video, a screenshot of which you can see in the tweet embedded below, purports to show CNN anchor Don Lemon chuckling as a flag is burned. The caption on the bottom reads “Democrats celebrate ‘blue wave’ burning flags on Election Day.” An on-screen image suggests that the video is from the CNN show Reliable Sources.
Pro-Trump social media is going wild with a hoax about Democrats burning flags to celebrate the blue wave https://t.co/lKxw9bcomQ
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 6, 2018
There are a couple of problems with this video, not the least of which is the fact that Lemon doesn’t appear on Reliable Sources — Lemon’s show is called CNN Tonight. Further, the footage from the supposed flag-burning is unrelated, and is months old — coming from another protest at another time.
As for Dan Jordan, it appears that posting doctored images and video is part of his modus operandi. Also on Tuesday, Jordan posted an image that he claims is a a screenshot of MSNBC supposedly calling the Florida election for Democrat Andrew Gillum over Republican Ron DeSantis. MSNBC never did any such thing, and several commenters pointed out that Jordan’s attempt to photoshop this meme into existence was clunky at best.
Badly-done photoshop isn’t the only Election Day hoax making the rounds on social media. Another popular hoax that may have popped up on your Facebook or Twitter feed, according to Wired, is that Customs and Border Patrol agents in El Paso are intimidating voters. In fact, CBP did plan a “show of force” in a predominantly Latino El Paso neighborhood, for reasons that remain unclear.
The plan was opposed by civil rights groups, and was scrapped at the last minute.
