US Politician Tweets Meghan Markle Pic With Cheddar Man Superimposed, Gets Twitter Account Suspended
Republican Congress hopeful Paul Nehlen draws criticism after posting a Twitter photo of Meghan Markle as the Cheddar Man. Nehlen's account was suspended following the controversy.
The original tweet featured an image of the Cheddar Man superimposed over Prince Harry's mixed race fiancée.
Geneticists recently revealed that the nearly 10,000-year-old Cheddar Man, which is known as Britain's oldest complete skeleton, would have had dark skin, black hair, and blue eyes. The research made waves for overturning often-held assumptions that early Britain founders are fair-skinned.
Nehlen Lands In Hot Water
With the Cheddar Man a hot topic in social media, Nehlen jumped on the subject with disastrous results.
The Republican Party politician, who is a candidate for a seat in the Congress, posted an image of Markle with the Cheddar Man pasted over her face. In the photo, Prince Harry was beside the Suits actress.
"Honey, does this tie make my face look pale?" Nehlen wrote in the caption.
The tweet instantly spurred backlash for the politician, who was accused as racist for the controversial photo. Nehlen quickly became viral, sparking outrage from both sides of the pond.
Markle's Suits co-star Patrick J. Adams came to his colleague's defense, calling the politician "sad and sick" for his actions.
Oh @pnehlen - you’re a sad and sick man with no sense of shame or class. Get a life. And don’t go anywhere near MM - she’s got more power, strength, honor and compassion in her fingernail than you’ll ever know in this lifetime. Way above your weight class. — Patrick J Adams (@halfadams) February 10, 2018
Before his Twitter account was suspended over the controversy, Nehlen responded to the negative reaction with an explanation for his behavior.
"Publishing an article disappearing whites or dispossessing whites of their homelands is wrong; made worse when claiming 'science' to 'prove' whites never existed," he wrote in a tweet. "I made a joke of it. It's not a laughing matter, so I chose to laugh about it."
Courting Controversy
The Republican challenger is known for his controversial statements, particularly on Twitter. Last January, Nehlen posted a list of his critics' names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, then infamously said that the majority of them are Jewish. The people on the list reached out to his campaign to complain.
"Of those 81 people, 74 are Jews, while only 7 are non-Jews," Nehlen wrote on Twitter.
The list has been branded as anti-Semitic, and some of the private citizens on the list revealed that they've been harassed over Nehlen's tweet.
