Actress Nancy Lee Grahn has falsely accused President Donald Trump of poor border facility conditions by posting photos that were actually taken under the Obama administration.
Grahn, who is known for her role in “General Hospital,” claims the photos were recently taken and that the Trump administration was torturing the “children.”
The photos in question, which show detainees sleeping or sitting on the floor of the facility wrapped in aluminum emergency blankets, were actually taken from 2015. But the actress had posted a version of the photo with the time and date cropped out.
“Trump administration is forcing children 2 sleep on cement floor with an aluminum blanket & lights on all night. Sarah Fabian from DOJ argued in court that it was good enough & soap was unnecessary. Companies making 750 a kid a day to torture them,” Grahn wrote in her tweet on June 21.
Trump administration is forcing children 2 sleep on cement floor with an aluminum blanket & lights on all night. Sarah Fabian from DOJ argued in court that it was good enough & soap was unnecessary. Companies making 750 a kid a day to torture them. pic.twitter.com/XuNIVZwkJW
— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) June 21, 2019
The post garnered a lot of attention with over 34,500 retweets and more than 38,000 likes as of June 24.
Many people were quick to call the actress out for the misleading photos.
“30,000 retweets for this total lie. These pictures are from 2015 and Nancy cropped the time stamp out of the top left. This only further proves the media took an 8 year nap under Obama,” conservative commentator Caleb Hull wrote.
30,000 retweets for this total lie.
These pictures are from 2015 and Nancy cropped the time stamp out of the top left.
This only further proves the media took an 8 year nap under Obama. https://t.co/3HkgtkaX7y
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 24, 2019
“In her tweet, you can even see that she didn’t fully crop out the black box covering the beginning of the time stamp I posted above. It doesn’t get much worse than this, folks. Fake news is the enemy of the people,” he said in another post.
In her tweet, you can even see that she didn’t fully crop out the black box covering the beginning of the time stamp I posted above.
It doesn’t get much worse than this, folks.
Fake news is the enemy of the people. pic.twitter.com/MKrtWgzB5y
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 24, 2019
Similarly, the Daily Wire journalist Ryan Saavedra also called out the actress.
“The timestamps on both of these photos—both from 2015—were just magically cut off. The photos in this deceptive tweet happened under former Democrat President Barack Obama, not Trump,” he wrote.
The timestamps on both of these photos — both from 2015 — were just magically cut off
The photos in this deceptive tweet happened under former Democrat President Barack Obama, not Trump
THREAD: Photos with timestamps in the next tweet and the article they are from https://t.co/vWtkFEiZpP
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) June 24, 2019
The photos, taken in 2015, were submitted in 2016 as part of a lawsuit against Border Patrol by The American Immigration Council, the National Immigration Law Center, the ACLU of Arizona, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, and Morrison & Foerster LLP, according to the American Immigration Council.
Moreover, according to the lawsuit, the caption of the second photo in Grahn’s post actually depicts men wrapped in Mylar sheets.
A sample of conditions in Border Patrol’s “short-term” detention facilities https://t.co/TONnUt01g7 #immigration pic.twitter.com/RfjjaMV50p
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) August 18, 2016
On June 24, the actress dismissed the criticism by posting, “my timeline is filled with ‘tweets aren’t available’ posts because Trumpers don’t know that they were muted long ago and are continuing to rant to no one. Kinda like holding a kids head at arms length when they’re swinging at you.”
My timeline is filled with “tweets aren’t available” posts because Trumpers don’t know that they were muted long ago and are continuing to rant to no one. Kinda like holding a kids head at arms length when they’re swinging at you.
— Nancy Lee Grahn (@NancyLeeGrahn) June 24, 2019
This is not the first time photos of border patrol facilities from the Obama administration were used to criticize Trump’s immigration policies.
An Associated Press photo of two unidentified female detainees sleeping in a holding cell taken in June 2014 was widely reported by media outlets and circulated on social media to falsely represent Trump’s policies.
Democrats mistakenly tweet 2014 pictures from Obama’s term showing children from the Border in steel cages. They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires. Dems must agree to Wall and new Border Protection for good of country…Bipartisan Bill!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2018
In response, Trump said, “Democrats mistakenly tweet 2014 pictures from Obama’s term showing children from the Border in steel cages. They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires. Dems must agree to Wall and new Border Protection for good of country…Bipartisan Bill!”
