Biden White House Faces Uncomfortable Questions After Princess 'KateGate' Photo Editing Controversy

This week, multiple media outlets here in the United States and in the United Kingdom announced that they had pulled an official Kensington Palace-released photo of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, and her children on grounds that it had been digitally altered.

The Associated Press, for instance, filed this report:

The first official photo of Kate, the Princess of Wales, since her abdominal surgery nearly two months ago was issued after weeks of speculation about her whereabouts.
But The Associated Press and other news agencies retracted it from publication because it appeared to have been manipulated, fueling more conjecture.
The photo issued Sunday of Kate in a chair surrounded by her three children was credited to her husband, William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, and was said to have been taken earlier in the week in Windsor.

Kate Middleton has apologized "for any confusion" after a family picture sparked controversy over claims it had been digitally altered.

For more info, click on the image below.https://t.co/bWTuUIGpRh
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 11, 2024

In her apology, Middleton took responsibility for the edits, tweeting, "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused."

While the "KateGate" photo debate rages on and the memes flow amongst both fans and critics of the royals, talk here in the U.S. has turned to whether the Biden White House manipulates photos prior to releasing.

A question along those lines was asked during the Tuesday press briefing. It was, of course, laughed off by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and some of the other so-called reporters in the briefing room:

Reporter: Does the White House ever digitally alter photos of the President, Vice President — (laughter) — First Lady, or Second Gentleman before they’re released?
KJP: Digitally altered? Not that I know of. I would say no. Why would we digitally alter photos? [...] Are you talking about — are you — are you comparing us to the — what’s going on in the UK?
Reporter: I’m doing due diligence to ensure — (laughter) — that the leader of another — country wouldn’t alter photos —

KJP: Wh- — why does the monarch —

Reporter: — of themselves before released.

KJP — have to do anything with us? No, that is not something that we do here.

The reporter who asked it, CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O'Keefe, wasn't laughing, though. Watch:

CBS’s @EdOKeefe drew some laughs from fellow reporters and KJP for asking if the Biden White House has ever released digitally-altered photos (like the one the British Royals sent out of Princess Kate).

KJP insists, “no, that is not something that we do here.”

That is FALSE as,… pic.twitter.com/IgyLDgIUoj
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 12, 2024

As our Townhall colleague John Hasson documented in September, the Biden White House has indeed pushed digitally manipulated images of Joe Biden, and sometimes they've done it while trying to contrast him with Donald Trump, who they of course portrayed as slovenly and unkempt:

The last guy didn’t build a damn thing.

We are. pic.twitter.com/bQTS96YLuW
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 6, 2023

The actual image of Biden, a side-by-side comparison of which can be viewed here, showed him as he actually looks (like the image used for this article).

Biden's allies, too, have also been at it with the photoshopping, as RedState has previously reported.

Here are some examples:

Dem strategist photoshops Biden (badly) to make him appear younger

Safe to say Dems are worried about 2024 pic.twitter.com/mMJdQQ9Z0A
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) December 19, 2022

They even used the same side-by-side style to argue that Biden was more fit for office than Trump pic.twitter.com/ZtVg15B3la
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) August 1, 2023

"Safe to say Dems are worried about 2024." And that goes double for the con artists in the Biden White House, who want you to think our 81-year-old president is about 20 years younger than he actually is.

The problem, though, as I noted Tuesday, is that in the end, when it comes to questions about Biden's age and mental acuity, Joe Biden's worst enemy is... Joe Biden. I'm doubtful a majority of Americans are going to be fooled into thinking Biden, who has obvious limitations that can't be airbrushed away, can run circles around people half his age, as we've also been told.