GOP senator falls for sexually explicit Jimmy Carter death hoax

The fake letter announcing Jimmy Carter's death quoted the 39th president as calling his wife a "baddie" and the "original Brat."

• For the second time in one month, Sen. Mike Lee has fallen for an online hoax.
• The Utah senator posted a fake letter announcing Jimmy Carter's death.
• The letter quoted Carter as calling his wife a "baddie" and the "original Brat."

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a long-serving Republican who was once floated as a potential Supreme Court justice by former President Donald Trump, fell for an obvious online hoax on Tuesday.

On X, Lee posted an image of a fake letter purporting to be from the Office of Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, announcing the ex-president's death.

One look at the letter's contents, however, would have immediately indicated that it was fake.

The letter listed "getting soft on the Soviet Union" and "failing to rescue several hostages from Iran" as among Carter's "significant foreign policy achievements."

The letter also quoted Carter as making lewd sexual references to both his late wife Rosalynn and former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

"Rosalynn was a baddie. Jill, Melania, even throat goat Nancy Reagan had nothing on Rosalynn," the letter falsely quoted Carter as saying. "She was the original Brat. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it."

Spokespeople for Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This isn't the first time, even this month, that Lee has fallen for an online hoax.

On July 5, Lee spread an unverified and ultimately false report that President Joe Biden was suffering a medical emergency on Air Force One.

He's also not the first US senator to publicly fall for an online hoax.

In 2023, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas shared a photo of a shark swimming on a floated highway in Los Angeles amid Tropical Storm Hilary.

He later learned it was a joke. "In LA, you never know…" he wrote.