‘As someone who has done many late night live shots, the lights at the White House go off every night around 11 p.m….’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Democrats have been circulating an old, edited image of the White House in an attempt to criticize the Trump administration.
The picture shows the White House with all of its interior and exterior lights turned off. Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shared the image and suggested that Trump turned these lights off during the protests in Washington, D.C., posting it alongside a similar image of the White House illuminated in rainbow colors.
Elections matter. https://t.co/77jquAhp1x pic.twitter.com/AM5Z42pzyk
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2020
David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, also shared the image, calling it the “perfect symbolism.”
Perfect symbolism. If ever the country needed the occupant of the White House to shed light, and not heat, now is the time. Sadly, the lights are out. pic.twitter.com/5i8e60Ipcv
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) June 1, 2020
The picture, however, was not taken during the Trump administration. It’s an iStock image dated back to 2015, according to the Associated Press, though it’s unclear whether the picture was taken during the Obama administration or some time prior. The image was also altered to make the White House look darker than it actually is, the Associated Press explained in a fact check.
Furthermore, several reporters have confirmed that the White House normally turns its lights off. Even CNN’s Kaitlin Collins decided to set the record straight:
As someone who has done many late night live shots, the lights at the White House go off every night around 11 p.m.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 1, 2020
Clinton, Axelrod, and the several other Democrats who shared the false image have not retracted or revised their statements.