Republican Senator Duped by Jimmy Carter Death Hoax

Tweets claiming that former president Jimmy Carter died went viral on Tuesday, with many of the dumbest people on social media helping spread the hoax–from Laura Loomer to Mario Nawfal. But there was one person who shared the fake letter announcing Carter’s death who really should know better: Senator Mike Lee of Utah.

Brian Metzger from Business Insider captured a screenshot of Lee’s tweet before he deleted it. And while Lee was surprisingly respectful in his condolences for Carter’s family (considering he’s a Trump supporter), the actual text of the letter should have tipped him off.

Why? Once you get to the fourth paragraph, things get a bit weird, making it clear this isn’t something that should be taken seriously.

Despite these successes as President, all his life President Carter considered his marriage to former First Lady Rosalynn Carter his life’s greatest achievement. At her passing last November President Carter said, “Rosalynn was a baddie. Jill, Melania, even throat goat Nancy Reagan had nothing on Rosalynn. She was the original Brat. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.” They were married for 77 years.

If you’re not familiar with the Nancy Reagan “throat goat” meme, we’ll let you google it on your own time and away from your work computer. It’s also very unlikely that Carter’s death announcement would make reference to Charli XCX’s “Brat.”

Lee’s office in Washington D.C. confirmed over the phone that he deleted the tweet after finding out it wasn’t true but had no comment on where the senator first found the hoax letter.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) appears to have been duped by a fake letter announcing Jimmy Carter’s death.

The fake letter quoted the former president as calling his late wife a “baddie” and the “original Brat” who “throat goat Nancy Reagan had nothing on.” pic.twitter.com/Z0GYDCXwNy

— bryan metzger (@metzgov) July 23, 2024

The fake letter can be traced back to an X account called @Bocc_accio, which included the caption “BREAKING” with “Former President Jimmy Carter has passed away. He was 99 years old.” But anyone who actually read the letter should have been able to figure it out. If you read the alt-text on the tweet the image description even explains: “President Carter is still alive and in hospice care. This was an experiment to see how gullible people are to sensationalist headlines.”

🚨BREAKING🚨 — Former President Jimmy Carter has passed away. He was 99 years old. pic.twitter.com/nHuaf17uPG

— Boccaccio ✺ (@Bocc_accio) July 23, 2024

Oddly, it appears some of the fake Carter notes were photoshopped to exclude the stuff about Nancy Reagan. Loomer, a far-right grifter who will fall for just about any hoax and helps spread many of her own, actually shared a cleaner version of the letter. But she’s also been spreading lots of other dumb hoaxes recently, like claiming that President Joe Biden is literally on his deathbed and has entered hospice care. Some right-wing accounts on Monday night were going so far as to insist they’d delete their accounts if they were wrong about Biden dying imminently. It seems obvious that they’ll just wait until Biden eventually dies and claim they were right all along.

There’s absolutely no evidence that Biden is on the brink of death, even though he’s 81 years old and contracted covid-19 last week. Being that old makes him especially vulnerable to covid and he’s almost certainly feeling pretty terrible right now. But the president is expected to address the country at 8:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday to discuss his decision to drop out of the presidential race to allow Vice President Harris to run and presumably sweep the floor with Donald Trump.

Carter, who’s 99 years old and turns 100 in October, is indeed alive and in hospice care. And while it could be any day now that the former president may pass on, he’s not dead yet.