First the back story. Sen. John McCain was treated in early November for a minor tear to his right Achilles tendon. As part of the recovery process, the aging Arizona senator was instructed to wear a “walking” boot on his right foot.
If that were the entire story, you wouldn’t be reading about it. But there’s more, as the side-by-side photos below reveal. In the picture on the left, McCain appears to be following doctors’ orders and wears the boot on his right leg. In the picture on the right, however, the boot has migrated over to his left leg.
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Some McCain supporters in the media theorized that the photo on the right — of McCain, his wife, and their dog — was flipped. But as one observant Twitter user observed, there are visual clues that suggest that neither of the photos has been altered.
We can tell by the buttons on John McCain’s jacket (circled) that neither of these images are reversed, and his walking boot did in fact, switch legs, from his right to his left. Bet that brain tumor is fake, too. #NotAHero pic.twitter.com/56lwi8bQ5H
— Meme Chaos (@ExtinctMedia) November 23, 2017
So what is the explanation? McCain provided that himself on Wednesday.
Thank you for your support & best wishes. My left leg was doing extra work to compensate for the boot, so I'm giving it a break. I still hate wearing this boot, but it won't slow us down from frying 7 turkeys today!
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) November 23, 2017
“Doing extra work to compensate for the boot?” What on earth does that mean? And how does the senator believe that wearing a walking boot on his non-injured leg will help the injured one? Better still, what makes him sure that swapping the boot won’t complicate his injury?
Others on social media have raised similar questions:
https://twitter.com/CSLovely/status/933753066360311808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fpowderedwigsociety.com%2Fbootgate%2F
Your explanation is to cause more strain to your healing torn tendon foot? You do realize how ridiculous you sound right?
— Johnny (@spaghetti137) November 23, 2017
Yet others entertained more conspiratorial doubts:
A whole day to come up with the worst excuse ever. It’s confirmed, he is a Democrat.
— jp marat (@JPMarat77) November 23, 2017
