Social media was scandalized on Friday when Charlottesville, Va., journalist Elizabeth Holmes posted imagery of what appeared to be neo-Nazis endorsing Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin's campaign:

Charlottesville, of course, is where the infamous and deadly "Unite the Right" neo-Nazi rally occurred several years ago, and the individuals in the photo appear to have been mimicking the style of that rally, up to and including the Tiki torches they carried.

Yet questions quickly began to swirl regarding the identity of the putative Nazis. By the early afternoon, writer Alec Sears claimed to have identified at least some of the participants... as Democratic operatives.

Notably, the accounts of both individuals named by Sears were publicly available on Twitter until very recently; Camden Layton's account was apparently made private only today, while Colleen Wachenfield's account was available as recently as two days ago but has since been deleted.

What's going on here? Were these genuine neo-Nazis or is it a Democratic election stunt gone hideously wrong?

UPDATE: The famously anti-Trump "Lincoln Project" has taken credit for the hoax.

"Today's demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party's embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin's failure to condemn it."

That's...pretty weird. The whole thing just feels extremely weird, even after these jokers have fessed up.

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