Miami airport busts Trump social media director for spreading fake news in midst of storm

And apparently sharing it directly with Donald Trump.

Just after 3:30 p.m. EST, Scavino tweeted a video of what he claimed was a flooded Miami International Airport. In the tweet, Scavino noted that he was sharing information about the storm with Trump and Mike Pence.

That’s concerning – because the video he posted was a hoax.

And staff from the actual Miami airport staff weren’t having Scavino’s mendacity.

https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/906969233619341312

Scavino quietly deleted the tweet without acknowledging his mistake, but Twitter didn’t let him get away with it.

scavino deleted the tweet, but i filmed it pic.twitter.com/MTXsc0dlKA

— David Mack (@davidmackau) September 10, 2017

About 30 minutes after deleting the tweet — and almost a full hour after the airport called him out for spreading misinformation — Scavino finally responded and audaciously blamed his error on the volume of information he was receiving.

Thank you. It was among 100s of videos/pics I am receiving re: Irma from public. In trying to notify all, I shared – have deleted. Be safe!

— Dan Scavino Jr. Archived (@Scavino45) September 10, 2017

As the Washington Post pointed out, the video of the airport originated in August on a YouTube channel “that has been known to re-use old footage for new disasters before.”

And amazingly, that wasn’t even the first time Scavino shared misinformation about Hurricane Irma.

Earlier in the day, he tweeted an image of what he claimed was Biscayne Bay, but it was actually the inlet to the Miami River. Scavino has deleted that tweet, as well.

We all make mistakes, but a representative of the federal government repeatedly sharing misinformation in the midst of a natural disaster is pretty egregious — especially coming from a White House that spends so much time decrying so-called “fake news.”

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