A Fox News article is promoting the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “creative trolling” of Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA). In an attempt to prove that McBath doesn’t live in the Georgia House district she represents, the NRCC mailed a package to an address in Tennessee and claimed that McBath signed for it. One problem: McBath’s elderly mother-in-law, not McBath, signed for the package.

McBath, a freshman congresswoman, became involved in political advocacy following the murder of her son, Jordan, who was shot to death in 2012 by a man who complained Jordan and his friends were playing music too loud in their car. The killer attempted to use Florida’s NRA-authored Stand Your Ground law in his defense, but he was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder.

During the 2018 elections, McBath’s opponent Karen Handel attempted to claim McBath didn’t live in Georgia because McBath moved to Tennessee in 2016 with her husband so he could take care of his father before returning to Georgia in 2017. The NRCC attempted to make her previous residency in Tennessee an issue again with a stunt that involved mailing a package with a jar of coffee infused with Jack Daniel’s whiskey and other products associated with Tennessee to an address where apparently the group thought she lived.

An April 10 Fox News article amplified the NRCC stunt, writing, “Georgia Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath was the target of some creative trolling by the Republican Party over her widely disputed claim that she actually lives in Georgia, after receiving and signing for a gift basket the GOP sent to her address -- in Tennessee.”

The article went on to claim, “The lawmaker accepted the gift on Friday at 10:45 a.m. and signed for it as ‘LMCBATH.’ Fox News obtained a copy of the signature.” But the image in the article clearly shows that an “M. McBath” signed for the package:

 

As McBath’s office explained in a statement slamming the stunt, “The signature clearly was from the Congresswoman’s mother-in-law”:

Sadly, the Republicans are pulling my family into false attacks. This is exactly why I ran for office in the first place, because I am tired of politics as usual - and my constituents deserve better. pic.twitter.com/Zpm30laT3G

— Lucy McBath (@lucymcbath) April 10, 2019

Responding to the revelation that McBath’s mother-in-law signed for the package, the NRCC put out a statement headlined “Lucy McBath throws elderly mother-in-law under the bus.”