The aughts-era Canadian rock band that earned its proper place as the butt of an entire generation of internet memes found itself shrouded in newfound significance on Thursday morning.
As part of his seemingly weeks-long Twitter-rage at Democrats and the media over the impeachment inquiry against him, Trump tweeted out a doctored video on Wednesday evening, as he often does. The video featured a clip from the 2005 Nickelback hit “Photograph,” showing the band’s lead vocalist Chad Kroeger holding up a picture frame that had been edited to showcase a photo that Trump and other right-wing media have called incriminating. The photo features former Vice President Joe Biden in 2014 posing with his son Hunter Biden and one of Hunter Biden’s colleagues, whom the doctored video labeled a “Ukraine gas exec.”
Fox News and right-wing figures have been circulating the image for several days, alleging it gives some fodder to Trump and his lawyer’s fabricated claims that Biden somehow used his influence as vice president to keep his son out of legal trouble. The claims are widely seen as false and unsubstantiated, but were the basis of Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to launch a phony investigation into Biden. The pressure campaign was raised during Trump’s now-infamous call with the president of Ukraine, which formed the initial substance of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH!” Trump tweeted, quoting the song’s earworm chorus lyrics. But the tweet now shows that Twitter removed the video from the post, saying it was removed “in response to a report from the copyright holder.”
Twitter responded in kind, welcoming the oft-mocked rock group to the “resistance.”
nickelback……welcome to the resistance
— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 3, 2019
