Marco Rubio’s campaign team is furious with Ted Cruz after the Texas senator’s campaign team released an altered photo portraying a gleeful Rubio shaking hands with President Barack Obama.
Rubio senior adviser Todd Harris told reporters in South Carolina the photo was a “desperate” move from the Cruz campaign. Harris even handed out copies of the photo to reporters.
“This is not Marco Rubio,” Harris said. “This person, we don’t know who that is, but they Photoshopped Marco’s face onto somebody else. This is how phony and how deceitful the Cruz campaign has become.”
The photo, plastered with the title “Rubio-Obama Trade Pact” is the headline photo for the anti-Obama portion of Cruz’s site “The Real Rubio Record,” which trashes the Florida senator on several political platforms, from immigration to gun rights and Planned Parenthood.
The original image comes from a stock photo website.
Text underneath the photo of a smiling Rubio says he lobbied for Obama’s executive authority for the Trade Promotion Authority.
The site also says Rubio cast the 60th and deciding vote for the Trade Promotion Authority bill, “fast-tracking three highly secretive trade deals negotiated by Obama and encouraging corrupt, backroom deals.” Cruz also voted for that deal, but later changed his mind when it came up for a second vote.
The website slams Rubio as “the Republican Obama,” warning visitors:
“After more than seven years of the destructive policies of President Obama, we shouldn't replace him with his Republican clone.”Cruz’s campaign team rebuffed the criticisms of the image, alleging Rubio was trying to shift attention from the upcoming presidential primary in South Carolina. “If Rubio has a better picture of him shaking hands with Barack Obama, I’m happy to swap it out,” Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN.
The poorly Photoshopped image became the center of a parade of jokes on Twitter, where Rubio supporters imposed Rubio in a variety of famous photos using the hashtag #CruzPhotoshop.
Rubio featured in many of the seemingly sloppy Photoshopped pictures, appearing in the Wizard of Oz, as Mona Lisa and even as an astronaut.
Some notable images posted to the tag featured Rubio in the grassy knoll near where President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed as well as Rubio’s face Photoshopped onto FDR’s body sitting between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin during the 1945 Yalta Conference.
“Rubio camp said pic of Rubio shaking hands w Obama ‘inventing an attack.’ http://bit.ly/1LvMUzZ So what’s this-->,” tweeted Cruz spokesman Brian Phillips, directing users to a photo of Rubio shaking Obama’s hand.
Phillips unleashed a barrage of anti-Rubio tweets Thursday, saying the GOP presidential hopeful was more focused on the poorly Photoshopped image than anything else.
“So Rubio, who argues he's the strongest to stand up to Russia, North Korea, China, ISIS apparently wilts in the face of graphic designers,” Phillips tweeted.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
