The Photo of Georgia GOP Senator David Perdue Throwing a “White Power” Sign Is Legit
Yesterday I came across a photograph of Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga) on Twitter, showing him posing with two campaign workers, throwing the alt-right’s “ironic” white power sign. I posted this retweet of the image with a comment:
Loeffler hangs out with the Klan, and Perdue throws white power signs.This is who Republicans are. https://t.co/79EI5q9xhh
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) January 1, 2021
Almost immediately I started getting replies saying the image looked like it had been altered, focusing on this area in particular:
But since the image posted on Twitter was not a high-resolution image, it was difficult to prove either way. I’ve seen many low-res JPEG images that exhibit similar oddities, especially when you zoom in and look closely at a pixel level, because JPEG format uses a “lossy” compression algorithm that can distort sections of an image in unpredictable ways.
Today @BlueATLGeorgia posted a link to the original high-resolution (2048x1536) image on Facebook, and now the issue is settled — this photograph has not been altered. It’s perfectly legitimate.
In fact, it was posted at Facebook by a Republican campaign staffer.
I found the original post. Screenshots and link below.The Facebook photo is much higher resolution so draw your own conclusions on whether it’s real or fake.https://t.co/o1gAZSy47i pic.twitter.com/T6jyvW4G1a
— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) January 2, 2021
Here’s that same section zoomed in to a similar level, but using the less distorted high-resolution image from the Facebook link above.
The higher-resolution image makes it very clear that it’s not an altered photo. The part that looks strange in the low-res image is actually part of Perdue’s thumb visible behind the bent index finger.
In the Trump era it’s no longer very shocking to see a major Republican politician — a US Senator — expressing this kind of gutter racism. He could claim ignorance, of course, or say he was tricked into it by the guys posing with him, but don’t let them get away with claiming the picture was “photoshopped.” It was not.
