Fox News star hoodwinked by misleading picture of USA fencing witness at hearing
Republican lawmakers and right leaning media figures fell for a cropped selfie that appeared to show the head of USA Fencing flipping his middle finger before appearing before a hearing on men competing in women's sports.
USA Fencing Chairman Damien Lehfeldt posted a selfie image to his Instagram story wearing a suit and putting up what appeared to be his middle finger with the caption: 'Game day.'
Soon after, Lehfeldt was forced to post an unedited version of the image showing he was holding up a 'peace sign' with his pointer and middle finger and not flipping off the House Oversight Committee.
Lawmakers who oppose transgender athletes competing in sports that don't align with their biological gender pounced on a tweet from the Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS) claiming Lehfeldt was flipping the bird ahead of his testimony.
'ICONS has tweeted that I held up a middle finger. Here is the uncropped photo,' Lehfeldt posted to his Facebook story in clarifying the context of the entire image.
But it was too late.
Fox News host Aishah Hasnie already had picked up the story suggested the USA Fencing chair was flipping off the panel he was about to appear before.
The cropped image made it look like USA Fencing Chairman Damien Lehfeldt was holding up his middle finger ahead of the hearing – but he later posted an unedited version that showed he was holding up a peace sign
'I can't show it to you because it might be a little too graphic,' the Fox star said while reporting from the halls of Congress.
And Republicans on the House Oversight Committee printed out a version of his cropped Instagram image where it looked like he was flipping off the camera and blew it up on a poster at the hearing.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who sits on the panel and is a staunch advocate of keeping men out of women's sports, posted an image of the poster at Wednesday's hearing.
'Caught in 4k,' she wrote with a screen grab of the cropped version of Lehfeldt's image on a stand behind Government Reform Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
One social media user said it was dishonest for Lehfeldt to crop the image, claiming he edited it to make it look provocative on purpose.
'We don't have to smear a man who smears himself,' ICONS wrote in a post responding to the new information.
Lehfeldt is one of the people testifying before the Oversight hearing on Wednesday regarding Republicans' crackdown on biological men participating in women's events and sports.
It comes after female fencer Stephanie Turner—who took a knee to protest facing a male opponent – voluntarily left the sport.
At Wednesday's hearing, Lehfeldt defended the fact that fencing has long been a mix-gender sport with leagues where men and women commonly compete against each other. He also said he hoped that Turner would return to the sport and was 'disappointed' to hear she is taking a break.
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