Frankly, you had to dare! While today photos and videos are studied, analyzed, sourced and dissected, how can a candidate afford to post a video with a family that is not his or hers while suggesting that it is? Derrick Anderson, Republican candidate for Congress in Virginia, did so, triggering a lively controversy in the United States.
At the beginning of October, he published a video on his YouTube page in which he appears with the wife and three daughters of one of his close friends. This video, which quickly attracted the attention of Internet users, shows him smiling broadly, surrounded by the wife and children. Another shows them all sitting at a table having dinner, giving the impression of a united and happy family. These images quickly made the rounds on social networks, sparking reactions and mockery.
A national controversy
“What’s wrong with the Republicans?” Why are they all so weird? » asked The USA Singers, a group of activist singers, on X. “Derrick Anderson is so fake that he used a friend’s wife and children in campaign materials to make it appear like they were his own family,” also wrote on X American Bridge 21st Century, a group linked to Democratic Party.
The controversy grew further when Derrick Anderson’s campaign confirmed to New York Times that the people appearing in the photos were in fact “female fans and their children”. Worse, the wife and daughters were actually the family of a close friend of Derrick Anderson, and not his.
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Derrick Anderson, who is recently engaged and has no children, lives alone with his dog. A detail that is well mentioned on his campaign website. This revelation immediately sparked harsh criticism, with some observers and political opponents accusing him of having intentionally tried to pass this family off as his own, in order to give himself the image of a family man.
An attempt at manipulation?
Criticism against the candidate has mainly focused on the idea that he was trying to manipulate voters by playing on the appearance of a stable family life. However, his campaign team categorically denied these accusations. In a statement addressed to the New York Timesthe team insisted there was never any attempt to deceive anyone.
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“It’s both hilarious and sad. “Derrick Anderson’s opponent and every other candidate in America are in similar photos and videos with supporters of all kinds,” a spokesperson for Derrick Anderson told the New York Posttrying to justify this video. According to him, Anderson did nothing unusual or misleading, and this controversy is only an attempt by his detractors to distract from the real issues of the campaign.
Sharp criticism of the Democratic camp
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) strongly criticized Derrick Anderson, accusing him of “deceiving” voters through methods described as “dishonest.” Lauryn Fanguen, a spokesperson for the DCCC, said in a statement that “Derrick Anderson is so desperate to hide his anti-abortion views and look like a family man that he poses for fake family photos.”
She said the strategy showed how Derrick Anderson was willing to use deceptive means to curry favor with voters. “He is clearly out to mislead Virginians and certainly cannot be trusted to represent them in Congress,” she concluded.
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