Gov. Polis shared blatantly fake AI photos on social media Saturday that were intended to misinform about the popularity of a political candidate, then made fun of his constituents who fell for it.
This is the same governor who signed a law in June creating what’s been dubbed by critics as the Ministry of Truth and state censorship operated by the state attorney general, to prevent the spread of factually inaccurate information and instead encourage respectful discussions.
Polis is also the same governor who bragged about attending a symposium on how to “Disagree Better” at the Aspen Ideas Festival, in order to promote civil discourse and find “common ground while respecting different points of view.”
“It’s OK to disagree. There shouldn’t be a stigma associated with it,” Polis said. “But to do so in a way that doesn’t denigrate the motivation of those who happen to be your political opponents, and rather just focus on the issues at hand, is what we need to do more of in America today.”
Here’s how Polis utterly failed to practice what he preaches less than two months later:
Pls retweet the MASSIVE crowds of REAL AMERICAN PEOPLE supporting Harris/Walz to distract her opponent pic.twitter.com/OK3iUt305B
— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) August 10, 2024
How dare @jrb528 attack the hands of C̶o̶m̶p̶u̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶g̶e̶n̶e̶r̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶ real, actual, patriotic Harris supporters. Some people have hands that are shaped differently and it is not up to BIG GOVERNMENT to tell people what their hands should be shaped like pic.twitter.com/ZiKgiqTaQ1
— Jared Polis (@jaredpolis) August 10, 2024
Polis dropped his posts on X on Saturday night around 5 p.m. mocking the fake photos.
It’s unclear whether the doctored pix were originally posted by the Harris campaign, over-enthusiastic supporters, or from trolls trying to bait Republicans, which was clearly Polis’s intent.
It wasn’t until noon on Sunday that the Trump campaign called out these same photos that purported to be taken at a Detroit rally as fake.
Within one hour, a progressive website called Raw Story posted an article bashing Trump for falling for the fake, and within minutes the Harris campaign posted their official video of the event.
Like clockwork, the mainstream media led by the New York Times followed with articles mocking and bashing Trump for calling the crowd’s fake, many without carrying the pix of the fake photo.
From Raw Story:
Despite video from the rally showing a packed crowd at Detroit Metro Airport, the former president presented what he believed is evidence that the public is being (sic) been duped.
Just to clarify, the Raw Story article was posted at 1:02 p.m. Sunday EST. The Harris video of the rally was posted one minute later at 1:03 p.m.
It was a classic bait and switch, and someone on Trump’s campaign staff fell for it.
The fallout is that consumers of the mainstream media who can’t stand Trump will learn today that he is complaining about crowd sizes with the leftists insinuating that Harris is pulling in bigger crowds than Trump.
Social media readers will see the doctored photos and think Harris is faking her attendance.
Polis is a hypocrite.
And, leftists will use this as an example of why Americans can’t be trusted with their First Amendment rights and continue to argue that freedom of speech should be censored.