Cruz Campaign Quietly Pulls Photoshopped Image of Rubio and Obama

After initially defending their use of a photoshopped image of Marco Rubio and Barack Obama, the Ted Cruz campaign quietly replaced the offending image with a more legitimate version.

Here’s the before image, which led the Rubio campaign to denounce their GOP rival as “phony and deceitful.”

And here’s the after, which shows Rubio and Obama shaking hands after one of the president’s State of the Union addresses (the actual shake itself is out of frame).

The change comes after the Cruz campaign originally denied that the original image was fake. After reporters tracked down the stock photo the photoshop was based off of, the Cruz campaign changed their tune and downplayed the entire incident.

Both images are designed to attack Cruz on his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite the fact that Cruz originally supported the trade deal as well.

[Image via screengrab]
——
>>Follow Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!