Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Sunday morning the White House photographer for former President Barack Obama suggested that members of Donald Trump’s administration, along with the president, posed for a Situation Room picture in the wake of a U.S. military raid that resulted in the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at a time other than the White House claimed.
Pete Souza, the former director of the White House Photography Office, noted that the timestamp of the photo did not match up with the reported time of the operation.
On Twitter, he wrote: “The raid, as reported, took place at 3:30 PM Washington time. The photo, as shown in the camera IPTC data, was taken at “17:05:24”
In a separate tweet, he wrote, “It’s entirely possible that the raid was still going on at 5:05 pm. Before drawing definite conclusions about the photo, reporters need to nail down the actual timeline of the raid.”
You can see the tweets below:
The raid, as reported, took place at 3:30PM Washington time. The photo, as shown in the camera IPTC data, was taken at "17:05:24". https://t.co/XV0MFfFiTt
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019
It's entirely possible that the raid was still going on at 5:05pm. Before drawing definite conclusions about the photo, reporters need to nail down the actual timeline of the raid. https://t.co/Iw6tQ1ceGV
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019
One contextual note: during the raid itself, I made around 100 photos. I chose what I thought was the best one. I made around 1,000 photos throughout that day. Every photo was saved (as required by the Presidential Records Act), and eventually every photo will be made public. https://t.co/fdpQ2BLqdb
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019
Just to be clear, I didn't say it was staged. Trump himself said he didn't arrive to the Situation Room until "around 5pm". So it's definitely possible the photo was taken during the raid. https://t.co/h3yx8BbLAT
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019
One of these photos is staged. @PeteSouza’s photo was taken from the corner of the room since he was trying to stay out of the way.
Everyone in the @realDonaldTrump photo is looking straight at the camera, the photographer would‘ve blocked the screen Obama et al were looking at pic.twitter.com/nFQfmQl4Pz
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) October 27, 2019
Former WH photographer @PeteSouza looked at the date stamp & noticed this photo was taken hours after the raid concluded. Others say a site that tracks Trump’s golfing says he was on the course during the raid. https://t.co/aSnWrmsYws
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) October 27, 2019
