GOP Senate candidate photoshops Tim Kaine shaking hands with Stalin

Corey Stewart, Virginia’s Republican nominee for the Senate, posted an image on his Twitter account Friday depicting Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) shaking hands with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, joking that the two were discussing economic policy.

Stewart posted the photoshopped image, which was captioned “Archival photo: Tim Kaine discussing economic policy with Josef Stalin in 1944!” and included the hashtag “#AntifaTimKaine.”

#AntifaTimKaine pic.twitter.com/8sc9amOWFe

— Corey Stewart (@CoreyStewartVA) August 17, 2018

The photo of Stalin appears to come from a historic photo of Stalin meeting with former United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill and former U.S. President Harry Truman on July 17, 1945.

Kaine was born in Feb. 1958. When reached for comment, Stewart’s campaign hinted that more faux historical photos could be on the way.

“We’re still digging through Tim Kaine’s old albums — just wait until you see the photo of him playing golf with Karl Marx!” Stewart said in an emailed statement.

Kaine’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill on Friday afternoon.

Stewart, who trailed former the former Virginia governor by 23 points in a poll of the race earlier this month, is backed by President Trump in the race. He won Virginia’s GOP primary in June and has stirred controversy throughout his campaign for disparaging statements about a number of people and groups and for his alleged ties to white nationalists. Stewart has also been criticized for his past defense of Confederate monuments.

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No major Republican groups have come out in support of his candidacy yet, however. The National Republican Senatorial Committee said it has no plans to endorse his candidacy and the Republican National Committee has stayed quiet on the possibility of a potential endorsement.

The controversial Senate nominee has since blamed “ass hurt” Republicans connected to his primary opponent, Nick Freitas (R), for negative media coverage surrounding his campaign.

“There’s a whole slew of them,” Stewart told IJR last week. “And a lot of them are connected to my prior primary opponent.”

“I’m not going to blame him for that. It’s just that he’s got a lot of sourpusses out there who have an ax to grind because I beat their guy,” he added.

Updated at 5:00 p.m.