Posts Use Altered Image of Buttigieg in Battle over Who’s ‘Weird’

4 months ago 39

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Quick Take

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and his husband adopted two infants in 2021. Social media posts use an altered photo to imply Buttigieg is “weird” and that he used a strap-on device developed so men can breastfeed babies. The original photo is from a 2019 article about the device.

Full Story

In an election season that has already included a barrage of accusatory labels and name-calling, both political parties have taken to branding the opposition as “weird.”

The Democrats latched on to the word first. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen as her running mate, started referring to former President Donald Trump and other Republicans as “just weird” in July, the Associated Press reported. Walz used the word again at the Aug. 6 rally in Philadelphia, where Harris introduced him as her vice presidential pick. Their Republican opponents are “creepy and yes, just weird as hell,” Walz said.

Trump has responded by denying that he and Sen. JD Vance, his vice presidential running mate, are weird. “They’re the weird ones,” he said of the Democrats.

The “weird” war of words has expanded to a manipulated image on social media.

A July 29 post on X shows an altered photo of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg using a device to simulate breastfeeding a baby. “JD Vance is just weird,” the post reads, with the quote attributed to Buttigieg. (We couldn’t find a report of Buttigieg saying those exact words attributed to him in the posts. In a July 29 interview on MSNBC, however, Buttigieg did say Vance has “said a lot of things that are weird.”)

The post received more than 13,000 views, according to the platform, and the manipulated image has spread to Instagram.

But the original photo used in the posts comes from a Japanese company that makes a wearable, breast-shaped device that allows a man to feed a baby through a tank containing milk or formula. Images of the product provided by the company have appeared in American media, including an article that appeared in 2019 on the website Mother after the company showed its device at the annual SXSW festival in Austin that year. The photo shows an unidentified man using the device.

Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, adopted two infants, a boy and a girl, in 2021.

But the photo shared in the social media posts was digitally altered to add Buttigieg’s face.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.