Is a social media post from a supposed California Republican congressman called Jack Kimble about the "liberal" media ignoring the U.S. vice presidential debate an authentic, predebate post? No, that's not true: There is no Jack Kimble who represents California or any other state in the U.S. House of Representatives. The post originally appeared on a self-described parody account from a writer who publishes political satire.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on October 1, 2024. The caption opened:
When you schedule gaslighting a full 24 hours too early...😂
The image in the post appeared to be a screenshot of a tweet attributed to social media user "Rep. Jack Kimble." The tweet said:
I haven't seen much coverage of last night's Vice-Presidential debate in the liberal media. This doesn't really surprise me, as JD Vance absolutely destroyed Walz. I don't see how voters can vote for the Democrats after that debacle despite the biased moderators trying to help the Democrats.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 3 15:26:29 2024 UTC)
The image of the tweet gave it a posting time of 9:42 a.m. EDT on October 1, 2024 -- roughly 12 hours before the start of the October 1, 2024, vice presidential debate between the two nominees, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. In reality, the account on X for this supposed California politician, "Rep. Jack Kimble," posted the original tweet at 10:27 p.m. EDT on October 1, 2024, near the end of the debate.
The description for the X account "Rep. Jack Kimble" read:
Republican Representing CA's 54th Dist. & co-sponsor of Poe's Law. Detective Jesus #1: Thou Shalt Not Kill is out on Amazon http://amzn.to/3aDgUmi.
A search of the U.S. House of Representatives' official directory (archived here) turned up no trace of any current member of Congress called Jack Kimble, whether from California or any other state. 
(Source: House.gov screenshot taken on Fri Oct 4 at 21:31:00 2024 UTC)
The same directory (archived here) showed that California has 52 congressional districts -- not 54, as stated in the Rep. Jack Kimble account on X.
A link in the account's description went to a page on amazon.com for an eBook by "Jack Kimble" titled, "Detective Jesus #1: Thou Shalt Not Kill." Clicking on Kimble's name led to a description of him on his Amazon profile page (archived here) that identified the Jack Kimble character as "the brainchild of a Chicago school teacher" and all about "political satire."
The description read, in part:
Jack Kimble is the Congressman from California's faux 54th District. In reality he is the brainchild of a Chicago school teacher. Kimble began making a name for himself on both Twitter and the blogosphere in 2009 with his unique brand of political satire.
When this fact check was written, Reuters had reviewed a similar claim.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential elections can be read here.
