Twitter users have been known to get a fact or two wrong every now and then, but their latest faux pas has left many people scratching their heads.
It all started when one Twitter user tried to defend President Trump’s response to the Hurricane Harvey disaster by criticizing Former President Barack Obama’s response to a disaster in Louisiana, according to popular Internet-myth-debunking site Snopes.
When floods hit Louisiana, Obama was too busy worrying about the tough sand traps on the golf-course to go assess the damage
— Jacob Wohl (@JacobAWohl) August 30, 2017
While the original tweet did not specify which Louisiana disaster the user was referring to – the infamous Hurricane Katrina or the lesser known floods that hit Louisiana in 2016 – many users took this to mean Obama went golfing instead of helping Katrina victims during his presidency.
And, unfortunately, they didn’t seem all that interested in getting their timelines in order before they started tweeting.
Because there’s one small (seemingly obvious) problem: Obama wasn’t president when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Katrina hit in 2005 during George W. Bush’s presidency, with Obama being elected into office a whole three years later. At the time, Obama was a Democratic senator representing Illinois.
This argument doesn’t only fail on the chronological side. It also fails to acknowledge that Obama did, in fact, meet with Katrina evacuees as a junior Senator, and can be seen in photos meeting with victims and displaced people alongside former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, according to Business 2 Community.
Barack Obama (then Senator) visiting with victims from Hurricane Katrina at the Reliant Center in Houston. pic.twitter.com/IVIlyGi3oZ
— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) August 30, 2017
While it’s unclear how many of these tweets are serious and how many are trolls or bots looking to rile other users up, there were plenty of people who didn’t buy into the false claim and were seriously side-eyeing the anachronism.
“Where was Obama during Katrina?” sis…………. pic.twitter.com/h6ET2N68k9
— (@MADBLACKTHOT) August 29, 2017
Obama hated the victims of Katrina so much he didn’t take office for a further three and a half years #slacker #thanksObama pic.twitter.com/R88It4TTa4
— Rupert Myers (@RupertMyers) August 29, 2017
It’s always disappointed me how poorly Barack Obama handed Hurricane Katrina, the Civil War, and The Great Depression.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) August 29, 2017
While the Internet’s tendency toward misinformation is well-documented, this chronological hiccup is a worthy (if totally depressing) follow-up to the famous “Thanks, Obama!” meme.