Newsom’s Misleading Troop Photo: Afghanistan Or Trump?

The two pictures revealed service participants sleeping on the flooring in a congested space. Democratic influencer Harry Sisson uploaded the exact same photos on June 9, and one X user made a video clip in reaction, stating, “Those pictures are soldiers relaxing on the floor of the Hamid Karzai International Flight Terminal in Kabul. That picture was very first published Aug. 22, 2021.

The Viral Photos

Among the earliest respond to Newsom’s X blog post was from an individual who asked, “Why are the pictures so rough?” and attached a screenshot revealing the same inaccurate analysis that claimed the pictures showed soldiers at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

The screenshot read: “A collection of photos entitled ‘Afghanistan Emptying (picture 1 of 3)’ reveal soldiers and Militaries hing on the floor of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The metadata suggests the picture was taken on August 19, 2021 and initial uploaded on August 22, 2021 via DVIDS.”

The two pictures showed solution members resting on the floor in a congested space. Newsom published the images June 9 on X, dealing with Trump: “You sent your troops right here without gas, food, water or a location to rest. Right here they are– being compelled to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another.”

Newsom’s Claims vs. Reality

One X individual said Newsom is “posting photos of Biden’s fell short retreat from Afghanistan in 2021 to make a political stab at Trump.” One more said, “These pictures are from 2021 during the messed up Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden. Not the win @GavinNewsom believes it is!”

Democratic influencer Harry Sisson posted the very same photos on June 9, and one X user made a video clip in response, stating, “Those photos are soldiers resting on the flooring of the Hamid Karzai International Flight Terminal in Kabul. That picture was initial published Aug. 22, 2021. So that was how Biden dealt with the soldiers that were returning from battle.”

As Head of state Donald Trump released the National Guard and hundreds of united state Militaries to Los Angeles in reaction to demonstrations, The golden state Gov. Gavin Newsom uploaded pictures he stated demonstrated how the service members were being dealt with.

DVIDS Search and Chronicle Report

DVIDS refers to the Defense Visual Information Circulation Service, a source of photos, video and print items from service members and commanders made available to the media. PolitiFact browsed the web site using keywords such as “Hamid Karzai International Airport,” “Kabul,” and “rest,” filtering system for photos extracted from Aug. 19 to 22, 2021, and discovered no matches for the two images.

The San Francisco Chronicle first released the images Newsom shared, reporting June 9 that dozens of soldiers lacked “sufficient resting plans.” The newspaper mentioned an unrevealed source who it stated was “directly entailed with the release.”