That’s “unfortunate” timing indeed.
A conservative group in Georgia apologized this week after a mock-up of Republicans wielding rifles—advertising a get out to vote event—was reportedly emailed out the same day a teen fatally shot four at a nearby high school.
The poster, which was an edited version of The Expendables 3’s film poster, read “The Dependables” and plastered the faces of Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other Georgia Republicans over movie characters.
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The photoshopped Trump, which stood in the poster’s center with his buff arms crossed, wasn’t armed. However, at least five others are holding rifles similar to what Colt Gray used to massacre two of his classmates and a pair of teachers on Wednesday morning.
Restoring American Liberty Forum is the group behind the poster and event, which appears to still be on for the night of Sept. 30 at a restaurant in Cumming—about 35 miles from Winder, where the shooting occurred.
Byron Stewart, the group’s chairman, explained to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the insensitive graphic was created before the tragedy at Apalachee High School and had been posted online a day prior.
After the shooting, the Journal-Constitution reported that the group had deleted the poster from its social media, but could do nothing about the emails it had already sent out on.
“Yes, the timing was unfortunate,” Stewart told the paper. “Even though there is no connection between our posted advertisement and the events in Winder, obviously we feel leaving the posts up would have been insensitive to the victims, their families, and all who have been so severely affected.”
