- Journalist Ken Klippenstein tricked high-profile Republicans into retweeting a picture of JFK's assassin.
- Lee Harvey Oswald started trending on Twitter after Klippenstein asked Matt Gaetz to retweet his military portrait.
- Candace Owens claimed the portraits were photoshopped, despite Oswald being a former military member.
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Journalist Ken Klippenstein tricked prominent Republicans like Congressman Matt Gaetz, Matt Schlapp, and Dinesh D'Souza into retweeting a military portrait of President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, on Memorial Day.
Klippenstein, who is known for his political trolling, tweeted at the two asking them to retweet a military portrait of Oswald under false pretenses.
-beth (@bethbourdon) May 31, 2021
"Congressman, my grandpa's a big fan of yours and is a veteran, he would be thrilled if you could RT this photo of him for Memorial Day. Here he is as a young Private First Class," he tweeted along with a photo of Oswald in military uniform.
The journalist sent a similar tweet to Schlapp. Gaetz retweeted the photo with an American flag emoji in the caption and Schlapp tweeted "Wow @kenklippenstein it's my honor to retweet the photo of a veteran on a day we remember his fallen friends. God bless your grandfather."
Some Twitter users mocked the two Republicans for falling for the prank. Conservative commentator Candace Owens. on the other hand, found the tweets reprehensible.
"It is not 'political correctness' to have a soul and modicum of decency. Reminder: these men DIED - the majority of them on foreign soil - so you could be free," Owens tweeted at Klippenstein. "You do not photoshop murderers into their uniforms so you can have a laugh."
Twitter users were quick to point out Oswald was a member of the US military prior to the assassination of JFK and the portrait Republicans were mistakenly retweeting was not photoshopped at all, it was really his military portrait.
"I think I made Candace Owens short circuit lmao," Klippenstein tweeted alongside screenshots of their exchange on Twitter.