The "outside agitator" meme is back
by digby
The Trump people claim this woman is actually a Bernie "infiltrator." The creepy endangered species murderer Trump Jr. retweeted the claim as did some idiotic supporters:
Here's the real story.
They began circulating a rumor, on social media, that the woman pictured was not Birgitt Peterson of Yorkville, but Portia Boulger, a former Hillary Clinton supporter and current Bernie Sanders activist from Chillicothe, Ohio.
Twitter user @new_debis, who uses the hashtag #AlwaysTrump, posted Boulger’s picture. “It appears Portia works for Bernie. Promoting violence at Trump Rally,” she said.
Another user, @brassidio, wrote, “Hitler was a National Socialist. It’s unsurprising to see a Socialist giving a Nazi salute. #PortiaBoulger #trump.”
Boulger is 63 and a union carpenter by trade, though she says she now works part time as a teacher for at-risk children when she’s not volunteering on behalf of Sanders. According to a public records search, Peterson is 69. A call placed to the number listed for her was not answered, and the answering machine suggested it was outdated anyway.
I reached Boulger by phone on Saturday morning, a few minutes after Donald Trump Jr. tweeted her photo with the caption, “Big surprise. However, the media will never run with this.”
[...]
“I was at 4 North Bridge Street in Chillicothe, Ohio, at the IBEW union hall, making calls for Sanders,” Boulger told me of her whereabouts Friday night.
[...]
She said she didn’t realize she was being identified as the woman in the photo until her son called her, and then people started contacting her on social media.
“When my hair was long, there was a little bit of a resemblance with the hairdo, but my hair’s real short now,” she said. She pointed me to a photo she had posted, from March 9, that showed her bright white hair cropped close to her head.
Nice of Trump to tweet out this woman's name to his millions of followers. But not worry. They're all such mature, responsible individuals that I'm sure nothing bad could happen.
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