GOP rep criticizes Trump for tweeting Pelosi video

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) criticized President Trump for sharing a deceptively edited video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), saying no one, including Trump, should “disseminate information that you know is ultimately doctored.”

Last week, a video went viral on conservative social media outlets that slowed down audio of a Pelosi speech to make her appear to be slurring her words. Shortly after, Trump tweeted a different clip of Pelosi initially aired on Fox News’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight” that spliced together several verbal pauses.

{mosads}“You shouldn’t disseminate information that you know is ultimately doctored,” Hurd said Sunday on “Face the Nation,” asked specifically about the clip Trump has posted. “And this is going to escalate this debate and this fight.”

Hurd said the controversy over the initial video, which Facebook has said it will not remove, illustrates a lack of preparedness in responding to misinformation.

“We have old laws to decide how you handle disinformation. You have leaders that don’t understand how this technology can be used in the future. This goes back into this whole conversation around disinformation and how are we dealing with it,” he said. “And it’s not just the government alone. It’s not just the social media companies. It’s also the media, academia involved in trying to do this.”

Hurd represents a swing district that, as of 2019, is the only Republican-held seat on the U.S./Mexico border. He won his 2018 reelection by about 1,150 votes, making it the closest House race in Texas.