John Cornyn retweets two-year-old pic of Democratic lawmakers, asks why they're not wearing masks

Despite U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's love of Twitter, he sure does have a hard time figuring how to use the platform for his political benefit.

Case in point: the Texas Republican this week shared a photo of three Democratic Senators huddled together and questioned why they weren't wearing masks. Problem was, the snap was from 2018 — a couple years before COVID-19 made face coverings 2020's fashion must-have.

Cornyn retweeted the image Wednesday after it was shared by QAnon conspiracy theorist Mary Ann Mendoza, who demanded to know "What's missing in this photo?" The image shows Democratic U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker and Sheldon Whitehouse as they conferred during confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, according to a report from The Hill.

"Masks?" Cornyn responded pithily in a tweet that appears to have been taken down amid an avalanche of bruising responses. Multiple people, including a colleague and a leading epidemiologist whom Cornyn follows, accused Cornyn of spreading disinformation.

Hi John, this picture was taken well before the pandemic.

Also, I look forward to you calling out President Trump for not wearing a mask next time. https://t.co/aMDG5v4gAw

— Sen. Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) October 14, 2020

⚠️Mask misinformation—TX Senator John Cornyn tweets a misleading photo about Dems not wearing masks. It was a photo from 2018. This is the kinda of disgusting mask fake info that is ruining pandemic response. C’mon @JohnCornyn—you follow my account, so show some decency. #COVID19 https://t.co/E0OM3P4XNr

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) October 14, 2020

To his credit, Cornyn eventually responded "Thanks for clarifying" after PBS NewsHour corespondent Lisa Desjardins called out the image in a tweeted "misinformation alert." She linked to its original source, which clearly states it was taken in 2018.

Thanks for clarifying https://t.co/DzUkfQsPIO

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) October 14, 2020

Oops!

Those who follow Cornyn's Twitter antics know this isn't the first time he's earned a flame session for trying to get snarky about the coronavirus.

Cornyn, who's facing Democrat MJ Hegar in the November election, won a bevy of online abuse this spring for tweeting a dad joke about the then-worsening coronavirus pandemic and making a visual pun with a bottle of Corona beer.

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