A Baptist pastor in Kentucky said Wednesday that he’s a “victim of a drive-by tweet” after President Trump mistakenly mentioned him on social media in a jab meant for an ABC News reporter.
“I’m not on Twitter too often, so somebody on Facebook gave me a heads up,” Jonathan Carl told the Courier Journal. “I just had a laugh. … I’m a victim of a drive-by tweet.”
The 39-year-old lead pastor of South Fork Baptist Church in Hodgenville, Ky., about 55 miles south of Louisville, had his Twitter account, @jonathancarl, tagged by the president on Monday.{mosads}
“Such a phony hurricane report by lightweight reporter @jonathancarl of @ABCWorldNews,” Trump wrote in the since-deleted tweet. “I suggested yesterday at FEMA that, along with Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, even Alabama could possibly come into play, which WAS true.”
The attack was meant to be directed at Jonathan Karl, the chief White House correspondent for ABC News.
The initial tweet quoting the pastor was quickly deleted and replaced with the same statement including the reporter’s Twitter handle.
Carl told the outlet it was not the first time he has been confused for Karl online but said he now knew what it felt like to receive “presidential snarkiness.”
“Politics aside, I’ve seen a lot of the stuff the president puts out there. The people who receive that from him, you get the crazy responses,” Carl said. “There is a lot of hatred out there in the world, and it’s sad when somebody’s that negative and picking on people pretty consistently.”
The pastor added that Trump’s tweets distract from the larger issue of people “who are really suffering right now in the Bahamas” and other preparing in the U.S. for the storm to shift.
“People should choose kindness instead of being hateful,” Carl said. “It goes a long way.”
The president was blasting ABC News for the network’s reporting on his claims that Hurricane Dorian was expected to impact Alabama.
Trump caused confusion on Sunday when he tweeted that Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama would “most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.”
He also told reporters at the White House that “Alabama is going to get a piece” of the storm, despite no other officials or agencies suggesting Alabama residents would be affected.
ABC and several other major outlets reported Trump’s statement as incorrect, with the National Weather Service contradicting the president’s tweet roughly 20 minutes later.
“Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian,” the agency tweeted. “We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.”