Republicans fooled by AI-generated image of US crew member rescued in Iran

Fake image of airman surrounded by smiling military members has been reshared more than 21,000 times on the X platform

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Republican politicians were hoaxed over the weekend by an image purporting to be a downed US warplane crew member rescued by military special forces in Iran on Saturday, igniting a call for a national “crash course in media literacy”.

Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general and a US senate candidate and Mike Lawler, a New York representative, were all caught out for “liking” a fake picture of the airman, who has not been publicly identified.