White Stripes frontman Jack White blasted Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) Tuesday for sharing an AI-generated video depicting White calling people “fascists.”
In the video, a doppelganger for White is seen saying, “Don’t even think about listening to my music, you fascists.” The brief clip does not do anything to identify the “you” in the fabricated quote.
Burchett reposted the video on December 29 and added the caption: “That cute little girl from the Addams Family got really ugly and angry.”
After the lawmaker posted his joke, the original video he re-posted was deleted and a community note was added to the post confirming that the video was AI-generated.
White responded the congressman in a December 30 Instagram post.
“All of Trump’s lackeys and bootlicks like this elected official are cowards that would never talk this way to anybody like me or you in person,” White railed on Instagram. “Trump really lowered the bar when he brought his scourge to this government. Neither him nor his sycophantic congressmen and women manifest class or dignity, they all just regurgitate cheap, childish, grade school bullying points and fake christian(!) rhetoric. It’s really sad how embarrassing our leadership has become… The great state of Tennessee deserves better Mr. Burchett but you and your cult are too dug in and blinded to even realize it.”
White also turned off comments on his Instagram post.
White has called Trump and Republicans “fascists” in the past. He has also called Trump “a piece of shit,” blasted actors who have met with Trump, and sued the Trump campaign for using his music.
For his part, Congressman Burchett says he knew it was an AI-generated video all along but was using it to make a joke about Jack White.
“Of course I know it’s AI. Apparently sarcasm is dead. You’d think that someone with as much time on his hands as Jack White would be focusing on something more important—like how Johnny Paycheck isn’t in the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is a far greater injustice,” Burchett told The Daily Beast via email.
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