The Kamala Harris campaign baffled the Twitterverse Thursday by posting a photoshopped image showing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi yelling at a hypothetical President Harris.
A day earlier, President Donald Trump tweeted out a picture of a meeting with congressional Democrats that showed Pelosi standing up and pointing her finger at Trump. The president wrote that it showed "Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown!"
Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown! pic.twitter.com/RDeUI7sfe7
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2019
Several liberals adopted the image as an example of Pelosi's fortitude, including Pelosi herself, who made the image her Twitter cover photo. The Harris campaign attempted to get into the game by replacing Trump's image with that of the California senator. "Time for an upgrade," tweeted Harris national press secretary Ian Sams.
Sams's tweet was promptly mocked by the entire political spectrum not only for the poor quality of the photoshop, but for the unintended implication that Harris would clash with Pelosi as president and retain Trump's cabinet.
Graphic design is Ian’s passion.
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) October 17, 2019
So you're saying Kamala will do a better job implementing Trump's agenda than Trump? You thought through this well.
— sharia board 👳🏻♂️👻🎃 (@SirajAHashmi) October 17, 2019
They left the crop line on her.. I’m dying. She looks like a goddamn force ghost pic.twitter.com/ELNGf8kxaM
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 17, 2019
Kamala is going to keep the trump admin in place got it
— jordan (@JordanUhl) October 17, 2019
How are you guys polling so poorly with this 🔥🔥🔥 comms strategy
— 🎃👻 Eoin Hauntins 👻🎃 (@EoinHiggins_) October 17, 2019
"Time for an upgrade." -Kamala Harris, before her next personnel decision.
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 17, 2019
Time for an upgrade pic.twitter.com/AeNM1rBCqN
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) October 17, 2019
Sams was apparently not happy with the response. He attributed the mockery to conservatives, ignoring the image's implications and quality. He later deleted the tweet with the photoshopped image.
Rightwing twitter is a really sad place.
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) October 17, 2019
Sams's tweet and moody response came the day after a Harris staffer complained to Buzzfeed management about a reporter's mild criticism of Harris's debate performance, calling it "whiteness manifest."
"Do you seriously not have real problems?" Buzzfeed editor in chief Ben Smith said in response. "This text makes me think you are totally, totally unready for an actual presidential campaign."