A journalist pranked several high-profile conservatives on Memorial Day, tricking them into tweeting a photo of assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in uniform.
The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein wrote on social media to public officials and media personalities on the Right, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp, and conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, asking them to retweet a photo of “a young Private” in uniform whom Klippenstein claimed was his grandfather. All three have since deleted their retweets, Klippenstein shared screenshots of the posts on his Twitter account.
Happy Memorial Day! pic.twitter.com/Ol7fOAhpZz
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) May 31, 2021
Happy Memorial Day! pic.twitter.com/kjTqjlzI3g
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) May 31, 2021
Thank you sir! pic.twitter.com/r4CZD8uJ1B
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) May 31, 2021
The journalist has played similar pranks on former Ambassador Richard Grenell and former Rep. Steve King, luring them into tweeting photos thanking William Calley, who was convicted of war crimes, and Col. Nathan Jessup, a fictional antagonist, respectively.
ken klippenstein halo master chief collection highlights ? pic.twitter.com/8CqHO6RgMj
— manny (@mannyfidel) May 31, 2021
After earning the retweets, Klippenstein appeared to change his Twitter name to titles that would further antagonize the prank victims, giving the impression that Gaetz retweeted a user named “matt gaetz is a pedo” and that King was sharing a post from “Steve King is a white supremacist.”
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The Memorial Day prank got the attention of Candace Owens, conservative political commentator and podcast host, who told Klippenstein he was “making a mockery of a day that is meant to memorialize men that died.” After Klippenstein replied he “would not have guessed [Owens] cared so much about being politically correct,” Owens said it was not “political correctness” to have “a soul and a modicum of decency.”
“You do not photoshop murderers into [veterans’] uniforms so that you can have a laugh,” she added, according to screenshots of the exchange posted by Klippenstein.
I think I made Candace Owens short circuit lmao pic.twitter.com/tHDCtcZ051
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 1, 2021
Oswald, who killed former President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1956.
Klippenstein was not the only journalist to play a Memorial Day prank on political opponents. Conservative news site and higher-education watchdog Campus Reform tricked students in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., into signing a fake petition calling to “unrecognize” Memorial Day because it glorifies “American imperialism.”
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Memorial Day was first celebrated three years after the Civil War. On May 5, 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic established Decoration Day to honor fallen soldiers’ graves and established May 30 as the annual holiday, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The first major observance of the holiday was held that year at the Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1971, Congress passed an act declaring Memorial Day a national holiday, placing its observance on the last Monday in May.
