Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake shared two misleading photos on the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
One post praised former President Donald Trump’s response to the attacks.
Lake referenced President Joe Biden’s false claim that he was at Ground Zero “the next day” after the attacks. He did not go to Ground Zero until nine days after, according to CNN.
Biden’s “famous ’empathy’ is nothing more than a series of lies, plagiarism, and grotesque distortions of his past,” Lake wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Biden was nowhere near New York City the day after 9/11/01.”
“Do you know who was?” she added, alongside a photo of Trump.
Trump was indeed in New York on the day of the attack, though some fact-checks have found he exaggerated his role in responding.
However, the Trump photo shared by Lake was not from Sept. 11. It instead pictured him in front of the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 18.
“What Trump was really doing on 9-11 was bragging on a radio station that he now had the tallest building,” one X user commented.
Lake then made another post using the same photo of Trump, as well as a photo of then-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“22 years ago, these two men were among the many heroes that emerged in the aftermath of 9/11,” Lake wrote. “Today, they are being arrested and politically persecuted for questioning corruption in our Government. We were so busy bringing ‘freedom’ to countries around the world that we lost it here at home.”
Giuliani was widely praised for his response to the attacks and earned TIME Magazine‘s Person of the Year recognition.
“For leading that lesson, for having more faith in us than we had in ourselves, for being brave when required and rude where appropriate and tender without being trite, for not sleeping and not quitting and not shrinking from the pain all around him, Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of the World, is TIME’s 2001 Person of the Year,” the magazine wrote.
There is no doubt Giuliani was heavily involved at Ground Zero—but the photo Lake shared online is cropped.
The full image shows Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator, beside him.
“Funny how you made sure to edit Hillary out,” wrote one user. “But she was there, along side Rudy.”
The day after the attacks Giuliani led a number of lawmakers to Ground Zero, including both Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Giuliani has also acknowledged the role Clinton played in helping get benefits for the people that were injured that day.
Lake, who continues to falsely blame widespread voter fraud for her less than 1% margin loss in 2022, is reportedly on track to run for Senate in 2024—where she may face off against Republican Blake Masters, who unsuccessfully ran in 2022 against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
