CPAC Says It Definitely Did Not Just Mix Up Two Black Republicans

Hello from CPAC, folks! Day one’s going great!

While reporter Anna Merlan and I are waiting for the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference to begin in a hotel called (not a joke) The Gaylord, the shenanigans are already underway in cyberspace.

Washington Post reporter Ben Terris noticed this morning that on the conference’s mobile site, the bio of conference speaker Dr. Ben Carson was accompanied by a photo of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott who, like Carson, is a Republican, and who, like Carson, is also black. The alleged error was fixed later this morning, and Scott’s face was replaced with the sterner and bespectacled Carson’s. Unfortunate computer glitch, or digital intern who can’t tell black Republicans apart?

CPAC, for its part, is vehemently denying that they’d swapped the images, tweeting links to the Google cache that they say vindicates them (and the aforementioned theoretical digital intern).

As somebody who works on the ‘net, I know it’s certainly not outside of the realm of possibility that the screwup was a glitch. A million things can go wrong between a person’s brain and the publication of a blog post, a speaker bio. Shit happens. Most of it just doesn’t align so unfortunately with longstanding stereotypes CPAC is likely eager to shake.

Whatever was behind the mixup, Senator Scott (the first black Senator elected in a Southern state since 1881) responded with an admirable level of chill. Here’s his A+ response, per Talking Points Memo:

(Snaps.)

What other adventures will Jezebel’s first trip to CPAC bring? You’ll have to check back obsessively over the next two and a half days to find out.