A photograph shows U.S. Vice President Mike Pence waving a Confederate flag.
A photograph supposedly showing U.S. Vice President Mike Pence waving a Confederate flag before many of his Republican colleagues is frequently shared on social media: This is not a genuine photograph of Vice President Pence waving a Confederate flag. This digitally manipulated image was created from a 2016 photograph of Pence holding a selfie stick (not a Confederate flag) and taking a picture with many Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The original photograph was posted to the House Republicans Twitter account on Nov. 17, 2016: UNIFIED. pic.twitter.com/QqXrIClMtX - House Republicans (@HouseGOP) November 17, 2016 Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers shared the resulting selfie on her Twitter page: Great having @mike_pence visit today! I'm excited to work with him and @realDonaldTrump to shake up the status quo in Washington, D.C. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/2xQIGs2a9Z - CathyMcMorrisRodgers (@cathymcmorris) November 17, 2016 Whoever inserted the Confederate flag likely did so as a satirical comment on another aspect of these photographs that spurred public controversy, namely the evident lack of diversity among House Republicans. Mashable, which labeled this photograph the 'whitest selfie ever,' broke down the demographics between Democratic and Republican members of the House at the time: For reference's sake, prior to this election, the GOP held 247 seats; of those, 10 are held by Hispanic Americans (roughly 4 percent), one identifies as Asian/Pacific Islander (roughly 0.4 percent), and two (Mia Love of Utah and Will Hurd of Texas) are African-American (0.8 percent). Twenty three of the 88 women in the House are GOP members (making up 9.3 percent of the GOP members). By comparison, Democrats, who hold 188 seats, have 26 Hispanic members (10.5 percent), 10 Asian/Pacific Islander members (5.3 percent), and 43 African-American members (roughly 23 percent). The Dems also have 65 women members (34.5 percent). 
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