GOP Senate candidate doctors picture of opponent, replaces Trump with Clinton

A Republican candidate in the West Virginia Senate race released a campaign ad featuring an image of his opponent shaking Hillary Clinton’s hand — an event that never happened.

Rep. Evan Jenkins’s (R-W.Va.) campaign ad shows GOP primary opponent Attorney General Patrick Morrisey shaking hands with Clinton, despite the original image being one of him shaking hands with President Trump, Yahoo News reported.

Jenkins spokesman Andre Seré told FactCheck.org that the campaign had taken “creative license” with the image.

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“[J]ust as Morrisey’s campaign and his super PAC do in each of their ads portraying Evan with Hillary, [former President] Obama, [Rep. Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.], etc., we sometimes take creative license while arranging images in order to help make a substantive point,” Seré told the website.

Morrisey ripped Jenkins’s campaign for the use of the doctored image

“Despicable @EvanJenkinsWV photoshopped my photo with @realDonaldTrump and substituted it with Hillary, who I have always strongly opposed,” he tweeted last week. “Where is the accountability as this liar tries to deceive voters?”

Despicable @EvanJenkinsWV photoshopped my photo with @realDonaldTrump and substituted it with Hillary, who I have always strongly opposed. Will the media call out Jenkins for his lying and dishonesty? Where is the accountability as this liar tries to deceive voters? #wvsen pic.twitter.com/Od2YxpXOzz

— AG Patrick Morrisey (@MorriseyWV) April 27, 2018

Jenkins and Morrisey are among the six Republican candidates competing for the GOP nomination in the West Virginia Senate race. Strategists are predicting that two men will be the main competitors in the race, despite a previously strong showing by ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship.

The two officials are running as part of a GOP push to unseat Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and shift control of his seat to Republicans.