The Republican National Committee shared Beto O'Rourke's mug shot with a leprechaun hat photoshopped on it.
Even St Patrick's Day couldn't be a safe space from politics this year as the Republican National Committee took March 17 as the opportunity to take a hit on Texan Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke.
“On this St. Paddy’s Day, a special message from noted Irishman Robert Francis O’Rourke,” the RNC tweeted, sharing O'Rourke's mugshot from a 1998 drunk-driving arrest with a leprechaun hat and "Please drink responsibility" photoshopped over it.
Read more: A St. Patrick's Day message from Ireland: Thank you, America
On this St. Paddy's Day, a special message from noted Irishman Robert Francis O'Rourke. pic.twitter.com/JRjMEXhZRY
— GOP (@GOP) March 17, 2019
The tweet quickly received backlash from both Democrats and Republicans with Robert Schmuhl, professor emeritus of American studies at the University of Notre Dame, branding it an effort “to try to neutralize the charisma of O’Rourke by using his formal name and Irish stereotypes.”
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“There’s a long, tortured heritage, if you look at the way the Irish were depicted in the 19th century, in newspapers. There, you had depictions of them as rum-loving individuals who were creating havoc in America. To a certain extent, the message about O’Rourke draws on that questionable past,” said Schmuhl
What do you think of the tweet? Let us know in the comments section.
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