No, a US senator named ‘Tony Booker’ did not praise Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan -- there is currently no US senator of that name
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 4, 2019 at 10:30
- 2 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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The misleading post was published here on Facebook on September 29, 2019.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The post includes a photo of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The text above the photo states: “American senator Tony Booker said: “If he is selected then it might be the best selection ever, and if he is elected then Pakistanis are the most wise nation in the world.””
Khan, a former international cricket player, has faced allegations that he became his country’s prime minister in 2018 after a rigged election, which he denies.
The same photo has been published on Facebook here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here and here with a similar claim.
It was also shared in a Whatsapp group, as shown in the screenshot below:
The claim is false; there is no US senator with the name of “Tony Booker”, according to the official website of the United States Senate.
Below is a screenshot of search results under the surname ‘Booker’:
US Senator Cory Booker -- a representative from New Jersey and candidate in the Democratic primary race for the presidency -- has the same surname as the senator mentioned in the misleading post. Cory Booker’s middle name is Anthony, according to this US Congress directory.
But this online search of press releases published on Booker's website as well as a search on Booker’s Twitter account here did not retrieve any results for a statement about Prime Minister Khan.
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