Imagine our surprise that a Somali politician running for office in Washington is busted in an apparent case of political fraud.

That's the brewing takeaway for the campaign of Nafisa Fai, who is running for Washington County Chair, the at-large seat on the Board of Commissioners, in Oregon.

Fai was caught on viral video showing an upside-down American flag at one of her speaking events, but then her staff accused the video of being a "deep fake."

Or is it a "cheap fake"? It's so hard to keep up with lefty lingo nowadays.

End Wokeness blew up the controversy, prompting a meltdown from the Fai campaign.

Recommended
You Can't Make This Up (but They Did): Polling Firm Admits Fabricating Election Results Ward Clark Omar Emerges in TikTok Video That May Reveal Where She Is Nick Arama

"Oregon politician Nafisa Fai just held a rally in MN, speaking Somali, with an American flag UPSIDE DOWN," the account said. "Enough with the pretending already. These are not Americans."

The Oregon Journalism Project appeared to get Fai's back by calling the video a "deep fake," but then had to issue a painful retraction.

On Oct. 19, the Oregon Journalism Project published a story about a video of an upside-down American flag displayed behind Washington County Commissioner Nafisa Fai at an Oct. 10 event in Minneapolis. The headline and story described the video as a “deepfake” that was circulated by right-wing social media accounts to brand Fai, a Somali immigrant, as un-American.

On Oct. 16, OJP interviewed Fai, who is running for Washington County chair. A Fai campaign supporter then provided a different video of the event to OJP that showed the flag right side up.

After publication, readers raised questions about the conflicting images. OJP then obtained new images that showed the flag at the Minneapolis event had in fact been upside down. For that reason, we have unpublished the original story. OJP regrets the error.

The story isn't over yet. And that isn't simply because Axios and other outlets were caught up in the misreporting flap.

That is because End Wokeness reportedly has found reason to believe that the evidence provided by the Fai campaign to make the "deep fake" claim was itself AI-generated.

But wait, there's more.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave. 

KATU gave further evidence that the Fai campaign was misleading the public with its "deep fake" accusations.

KATU found cached photos on Google of Fai and several other speakers at the same podium with the USA flag upside down. The now-deleted photos link back to the Somali TV Minnesota Facebook page.

A YouTube video of the event was also deleted. KATU put the YouTube link into a video archive tool.

The video's thumbnail shows Fai speaking in front of an upside-down flag.

KATU also noticed several discrepancies between the cached photos and the screenshot provided to the Oregon Journalism Project regarding the flag and the broadcast banner.

That didn't stop Fai from claiming that the original video was AI-generated.

She got community noted into oblivion: "The original video containing the upside down flag is real, and was uploaded by Somali TV Minnesota. The image provided by Nafisa Fai is AI."

The sordid affair is not only a great example of foreigner-supporting candidates brazenly deceiving an American public they do not respect, but it is a harbinger of the brave new world of AI impacting politics.

At least in this case, there was a tip-off. There is something about Somalis and fraud that seem to go together like ice cream and apple pie. Although, not quite as American. But you get the gist.

We might not get the tell-tale signs that something is amiss in every case of AI videos shaking up election campaigns. 

So, Americans, keep your heads on a swivel. The new age of AI impacting our politics is just beginning.