A GOP leader in North Carolina this week shared a fake photo this week mocking Christine Blasey Ford, the first woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her, for her looks.
Lanny Lancaster, the Carrabus County GOP chairman, shared a photo of a young woman wearing braces and glasses with the comment, “This is the alleged sexual assault victim. Wow.”
{mosads}“The media wants you to think she was a beautiful young lady who was on her way home from the tennis courts,” Lancaster said in a phone interview with local outlet The News & Observer after it was confirmed that the photo does not depict Ford. “I just wanted you to see the real person. I wanted people to see that this is really her.”
The photo, which is not of Ford, has been circulating the internet for years, the News & Observer reported.
North Carolina Democratic congressional candidate Frank McNeill slammed Lancaster over the post, saying in an email newsletter that it was part of an “assault on the safety and dignity of American women.”
“Now, Republican attacks on Dr. Blasey-Ford [sic] are coming from inside our own 8th District,” Mcneill wrote in the email, according to the newspaper. “Cabarrus County Republican Chair, Lanny Lancaster, posted his nastiness on Facebook just last night!”
The fake photo of “Ford” apparently originated on 4chan, an online forum known to incite baseless internet conspiracy theories.
Lancaster told the News & Observer that he does not believe a person’s appearance has bearing on whether they are sexually assaulted.
“This is a transparent attempt to shame a woman and objectify Dr. Blasey Ford again,” McNeill’s campaign manager Marc O’Hara said.
McNeill is running against Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.).