Writer Tricks Matt Gaetz, Matt Schlapp and Dinesh D’Souza to Post Tweet Honoring Lee Harvey Oswald
Ken Klippenstein spent part of his Memorial Day weekend tricking Rep. Matt Gaetz , CPAC chair Matt Schlapp, and conservative curiosity Dinesh D’Souza into honoring the service of Lee Harvey Oswald , also known as the guy who assassinated President John Kennedy .
Klippenstein is a former contributor to The Intercept and The Nation, and according to a Mediaite colleague, can fairly be referred to as an “influential resistance Tweeter.” He’s also prone to pranking on Twitter , and his past targets include Naomi Wolf and Richard Grennell.
In this instance, Klippenstein shared a military photo of Oswald and asked Schlapp, Gaetz, and D’Souza to praise his service. Each did, as they didn’t recognize the rather nondescript image of the guy who allegedly shot Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas.
These pranks are typically short-lived, as the targets inevitably figure out they’ve been duped and delete their tweets. But thanks to Twitter user Beth Bourdon , we can feature screenshots of the now-deleted replies below:
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Gaetz really is as stupid as he looks.
Maybe he's too young to have ever seen a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald. But I doubt it.
Yea saw this floating around Twitter yesterday.. That's some epic trolling.
I wouldn't have recognized him. It's a funny trick though.
How they could not tell it was Oswald is beyond comprehension.
Moronic imbeciles.
What makes you say that? How many opportunities does an average person (or even a member of Congress) have in say, a year, to even think about what Lee Harvey Oswald looks like? Isn’t it possible a person could look like Oswald and not be him? There’s nothing especially iconic about Oswald’s look. This is not a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
And even if you kinda knew what he looked like, if some random citizen sent you a picture and said it was his grandfather, and his grandfather looked like Oswald, would you give him shit for it and insist it was Oswald? What if you were wrong?
Wouldn’t the more gracious thing be to just do the retweet and wish him Happy Memorial Day?
Nope. Anyone with a brain would know that was Oswald. They are complete idiots. Just excuses for reprehensible behavior
Based on what? Just because you want it to be so?
What is reprehensible about not recognizing someone - especially someone famous for one act he committed 60 years ago? Or are these people reprehensible for believing someone about an allegedly beloved veteran on Memorial Day? Is that the reprehensible part?
Excuses
This is what I hate about how partisan politics pushes us apart. People refuse to recognize that people are still people and instead seem to leap to the partisan answer right away.
So a congressman got a picture of someone in uniform and is told the picture is of a beloved grandfather and the message implies the grandfather is still alive and would love if the congressman would mention him this Memorial Day. Really standard fare for politicians, to tweet (as it's really little effort) about servicemen and women around Memorial Day. But the left wants to laugh because they pulled out a 70 year old picture and tricked some Republican politicians into retweeting the image. Well done, you really showed those fucking politicians what's what... Maybe next someone can impersonate Greta Thunberg and reach out to some politician about better ways to save the earth...
You still can't articulate what exactly is wrong here, and you have been given multiple chances. That speaks volumes.
You keep making excuses for these idiots...anyone with half a brain would and/or should know that is a picture of a murderer. keep defending these morons.
Again. Why? Cuz you say so?
People trying to show respect for our armed forces on Memorial Day don’t need defending. But you might for attacking them for it.
FYI, I am a Gold Star Mom. My son was a Marine. Don't lecture me on Memorial Day or anything military related or patriotic related. Again, anyone that didn't recognize one of the worst human beings in the world needs a history lesson.
I'm done with you and your nonsense.
Being a Gold Star Mom doesn't make you better or smarter than I am. What makes you think you can lecture me or tell me when I can have an opinion on something? You don't know shit about me or my family. You can be a Gold Star Mom ten times over, but that won't prevent you from have a stupid take on a military issue.
You want to take a solemn and important day and score political points with it. I find that shameful. Flex your Gold Star all you want, but that doesn't make you right.
Lee Harvey Oswald has one of the most famous faces in American history. Is it possible that 60 year old Dinesh D'Souza, 53 year old Matt Schlap , and 39 year old Matt Gaetz are not familiar with Oswald's face? Sure, it's possible. Anything is possible.
The prank is still funny because of the sanctimonious bs we get from these three at every opportunity to flaunt their "patriotism."
I love the ignore feature.
Not really. Unless you have a link verifying that opinion, I’m not buying it.
I’m not trying to claim the guy is unknown or anything, but it’s not like he’s on the money, or he’s on TV a lot. He doesn’t have a unique mustache, tattoo, or clothing. He was very plain looking. 60 years later, on 99% of days, 99% of people have no reason to familiarize themselves with his image.
If you showed me a picture of three guys and asked me to pick out LHO, I think I could do it. But if a stream of pictures were going by me and I didn’t have a reason to be on the lookout for him, I doubt I would notice if his picture appeared among many in my feed - especially if the picture was just LHO in uniform and not LHO being perp-walked or holding his rifle.
A person is not a bad American if someone (an asshole in this case) says, “this is my grandpa” and they don’t catch that it’s really LHO. I bet all these sanctimonious people who are claiming today that it’s so obvious, couldn’t have picked him out of a lineup yesterday.
Furthermore, I think it’s far worse to take Memorial Day and make it a day for a prank to score political gotcha points. It really diminishes what the day is supposed to be about - something the victims of this prank managed to remember.
Anyone... and especially any public person... should be careful to know what they're re-tweeting. These people didn't do due diligence... and got burned.
So it's funny!
That's all some here ever do - is make excuse for these fucking idiots.
"The prank is still funny because of the sanctimonious bs we get from these three at every opportunity to flaunt their "patriotism."
Yup! They're all fucking idiots and we love rubbing their stupid faces in it when they fuck up, which is all the time. That includes every single gop/gqp member.
It's always funny when these fucking morons mis-speak, and they do it all the time.
Yes, I noticed, and it's disgusting. Excuses for bad behavior.,
It's on the conservatives. How dare they not know progressives would exploit Memorial Day by lying and trying to score silly political points by taking advantage of their kindness.
It's clear who the asshole in this situation is, and it's not Gaetz etc.. .
That’s what they get for being on social media to begin with. You get on social media you have to be ready to be fucked with.
I guess the former guy is a progressive then. All he did was talk about how great he is.
Exsqueeze me Trump!?!? It was YOUR pandemic that resulted in people not traveling which caused tanker drivers out of jobs and the schools that train drivers to close. Now we don't have enough drivers to deliver fuel and that is why gas prices are so high right now. I throw your shame shame shame back in your ignorant pig face. Do us all a favor and just play golf and STFU.
I bet if trumpturd could suck his little weenie he would.
nice!
Yes Sean, it's quite clear who the asshole is here. . . . . .
I guarantee 99.9% of people who think this is a good burn wouldn’t have thought to identify Lee Harvey Oswald on their own any more than a random congressman did. And nobody is thinking about the biography of Oswald before he killed JFK when they are just trying to be gracious to ordinary citizens remembering military family members.
Memorial Day is a serious holiday and some douchebag chose to turn it into a joke. That’s the news here. It’s not funny. It’s dickish.
For relevant contrast, the other day, we had a seed on here criticizing Kamala Harris for focusing on the long weekend instead of those who served. In that case, it was the Right that was being unreasonably harsh in its judgment. I saw no harm in focusing on one thing for a moment instead of another because I assumed Harris still had respect for those who serve.
That’s why it would be all the more hypocritical to see something praiseworthy in this stunt from the Left. This insensitive joke doesn’t just temporarily focus on something other than honoring service members and their families, it turns them into fodder for a prank. I would be ashamed to support this.
I dont think its praiseworthy, I think it's funny. These right wing clowns bathe themselves in public patriotism every chance they get, so they were ripe for the plucking. Just as funny is the fact that conservative "pundit" Candace Owens assumed that the picture of Oswald in a Marine uniform was photoshopped. She is young it is true, but evidently she didnt consider the fact that someone like Oswald could have been a Marine once.
People of a certain age probably remember a great many details about Oswald, as well as what he looked like. But I assume most Americans don’t care about any of that, and I can’t blame them. He wasn’t a great man we want to remember. He was an assassin who did one evil thing for one terrible moment and then it was over. There are far more prominent, “great” evil men who worked their evil over time - e.g. Hitler, Stalin - that I would expect people to recognize before I would expect them to recognize Oswald, much less know anything about his life before infamy.
She's a dumb bitch and that's all there is to it.
You've left out the most prominent and evil and that piece of shit is still among us - trumpturd.
Exactly. Re-tweeting means taking responsibility for the content. If a couple of idiots don't pay attention, that's on them.
As for Candace Owens, she's a young Fox "journalist". She's paid to be Black while cute. No one expects anything but nonsense from her.
I was not trying to be all-inclusive in my little two-person list, but your comment does support my larger point. i.e people would recognize Trump much easier because he has been in the public consciousness for so long, and also still is. Not just the 4 years as president, but decades as a notorious rich weirdo before and after that.
By contrast, Oswald did one terrible thing almost 60 years ago. The people pranked weren’t even alive then. There is no particular reason they should have recognized him, especially when the photo was presented as someone else.
People really ought to read more and watch more documentaries than the latest trash reality TV show
Oswald was just not that distinctive looking. He murdered JFK a very long time ago, and these fooled people were just trying to be nice to people on Memorial Day. For that, they are the bad guys?
I was born in 1962. I was barely a year old when JFK died and I still recognize who Oswald is.
No, they're not bad guys, just idiots
Give it up. [Deleted]
Born in 54 and the day is vividly burned into my memory.
JFKs speeches started me on the road to becoming a scientist.
I was watching live when Ruby shot Oswald.
Read the Warren report.
Skull and Bones (CIA) killed Kennedy by way of Oswald and backups.
This is just ridiculous. He did "one terrible thing" . lol.
Oswald's photo has appeared in countless places over the decades. His face is extremely well known.
Same here, born in 1962 but sure as hell know who Oswald was and what he looked like.
This is why discussion can be so lame here. I said a true thing and you want to act like it’s outrageous. Am I wrong? Did he murder presidents repeatedly over time? Or did he do it once? Or maybe you think “terrible” is an inappropriate word? Exactly what is your point?
Extremely? How do you measure that? I can think of a lot of people whose faces are much better known. Now put yourself in the position of people who were trying to honor our armed forces yesterday. Multiple tweets are coming in and you’re just trying to wish people well.
Are you a bad American if you miss a prank? I think you’re a bad American if you’re the one pulling the prank on Memorial Day. But then I care more about honoring people who wear the uniform than I do about embarrassing someone with different politics than I have. Call me crazy, I guess.
[Deleted]
[It was completely predictable.]
Make it two people on this site. As Tacos mentioned in another post, pictures of oswald in uniform are much less common than pictures of him under arrest. I’d say that what you’re claiming would be true 50 or so years ago, unfortunately for you, you’re about 50 years too late.
[Deleted]
I never said Oswald wasn’t well known.
You are just not approaching this honestly.
Everyone has seen this picture, and knows it’s Lee Harvey Oswald:
Every has also seen this picture and knows who it is:
But this guy below? He could be anybody . Especially if you weren’t expecting to look for someone famous.
[deleted] excuses, excuses . . . . .
YUP!
[deleted]
I agree... up to a point. This is not one of Oswald's best-known photos.
So what?
Shouldn't public persons be expecting the occasional prank-attack? Fake phone calls, and such? These prank victims were not very attentive.
In general? Sure. But are they somehow bad Americans because they missed this one? No. That’s the theme of the seeds on this topic, and it’s a stupid take.
Well, looky there!
A progressive liberal "owning" a conservative.
Productive day for the little bugger, wasn't it?
Now he can bask in the glow of adulation coming from all the other progressive liberals.
The idiotic things Gaetz, Schlapp and D'Souza say on a regular basis makes them look much stupider than this prank.
I'd bet less than 2% of Americans would identify that as a picture of Oswald rather than as one of a generic American veteran in a context free environment. And I'd bet almost all of the people here who posted about how outrageous it is a 38 year old man didn't recognize him when he was told it was someone else would fall for it as well.
And they certainly would not recognize a picture of Leon Czolgoz (or even know who he is if given the name) if he were identified as someone's first ancestor to emigrate to America.
If it had been a rare occasion that I agreed with Texan1211 and Gazoo on some things, it would be an even MUCH rarer occasion that I would agree with Sean Treacy on anything, but I do now. I can remember the precise moment while I was sitting in a bar admission course lecture hall when a student announced from the lectern the assassination of JFK, I can see it exactly still in my mind's eye. I drove back to my parent's home for the weekend and could not move from in front of the TV set, and watched live as Jack Ruby shot Oswald. So much of that time is in front of me now as if I were back then, but when I first looked at the photos above, I would not have known they were Oswald unless I were guided by the headline of this article to have known it.
If you received this photo, with the "my grandfather" backstory, would you have re-broadcast it without question? Or would you have wanted to be sure?
Now imagine that you are a somewhat prominent public personality, and ask yourself the same questions.
Re-tweeting means assuming responsibility. The more public one is, the greater is the need for due diligence.
Why didn't these people do due diligence? That's a better question.
Personally, I find it reprehensible that progressive liberals need for "owning a conservative" reduced them to such a cheap stunt connected with Memorial Day. They must be proud to demean the day on purpose to "own a conservative".
Along with the sychophants who think this is somehow appropriate or okay.
Since they were public figures, it's quite possible they may have had many such items sent to them, so it's not unlikely that all they did was the type of perfunctory acknowledgement that they did for all. I lay considerably more fault with those who pull those kinds of dirty tricks - that's where the morality is lacking and I see NO JUSTIFICATION for it.
Public figures get pranked all the time. Prank phone calls are commonplace.
It's FUNNY!
Laughing about insulting veterans.
Nice touch.
Is it OK to laugh about you?
Like I would give a shit about some anonymous person who has never met me laughing at me.
To care would signify that I respect that person's opinion.
I hope you and Kamala had a nice weekend.
This is an example of how easy it is to dupe folks who fall for talking points, just add a uniform and they bought it.
This is also a good example of progressive liberals stooping almost as low as possible to "own a conservative".