A supporter of former President Donald Trump stands accused of pretending to be a Black woman on social media to attack Vice President Kamala Harris. He said it's all a misunderstanding.
Pro-Trump influencer Joey Mannarino said to his more than 488,000 followers on X on Tuesday that he was a "TRUE Black American woman" before vowing to never vote for Harris.
"I'm a TRUE Black American woman and I've been Black all my life. I was born Black and I will die Black," Mannarino wrote. "My mommy was Black. My daddy Black. I will NEVER cast a ballot for that Kamala Harris woman as long as I live! Trump all the way, all day everyday!"
Mannarino's text was also shared alongside an image of Black Trump supporter Lavern Spicer that was quickly deleted, but not before countless users captured screenshots and videos of the post.
"I just caught @JoeyMannarinoUS pretending to be a Black Woman voting as a Republican," X user @BaloneyTony305 wrote. "PLEASE SHARE THIS FAR AND WIDE. ALL MAGA HAS ARE LIES!!!"
But Mannarino denies the allegations and instead claims that the post was accidentally made on his profile by Spicer, a Black conservative woman running for Congress in Florida’s 24th District.
"A tweet posted earlier from my account was the result of my account being logged in on a friend's device. Clearly, I am not a Black woman," Mannarino said. "Unlike the Democrat nominee for President, I don't spend my time pretending to be a Black woman to garner votes under false pretense. The lesson here is always log yourself out when borrowing or using friend's devices, because even months later you'll stay logged in if you haven't changed passwords. On to the next scandal."
In his comments, Mannarino referenced a refrain from 2020 on the right that Harris isn't Black.
Spicer herself also defended Mannarino's claim in a post of her own.
"I will be holding a Spaces later today with my friend Joey Mannarino [to] clear up some misunderstandings," she said. "I’ll get to doing that as soon as I finish distributing food to over 800 homeless people who line up outside of my food bank every week - multiples times per week - for food distribution. See you later!"
The pair did eventually hold a Spaces event on X to try and dispel the claim that Mannarino was pretending to be Spicer.
This isn't the first time that a right-wing influencer has been accused of pretending to be a Black woman.
In 2020, Dean Browning, a former county commissioner and failed congressional candidate from Pennsylvania, set the internet ablaze after claiming to be a Black man while criticizing former President Barack Obama.
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