Is a photo of Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham standing with Osama Bin Laden real? No, that's not true: The image was digitally altered from a real photo of McCain and Graham standing with Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai in July 2013. The fake version showing al-Qaida founder Osama Bin Laden began circulating after McCain's 2018 death as a way to discredit the senator. It appeared again in June 2025, apparently in an effort to discredit Graham.
The claim reappeared in a meme (archived here) shared on X on June 5 2025, under the title "HOLY. ACTUAL. COW. This just shook my brain." The text on the meme read:
The swamp runs deep.
Hal Turner Radio Show - Declassified: Photo of Lindsay Graham with Osama Bin Laden and John McCain
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of X by Lead Stories)
The Hal Turner Radio Show is an internet-based show that often focuses on far-right conspiracies.
Sen. McCain shared the original photo in a tweet (archived here) on July 4, 2013
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in May 2011, more than two years before this photograph was taken.
