No, this isn’t a real Republican representative prematurely responding to the VP debate

Did a lawmaker accidentally tweet his partisan analysis of the Oct. 1 vice presidential debate hours before it even began? No — it was a joke. But some social media users didn’t get it.
On the morning before Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, faced off on CBS News, a purported Republican representative from California issued this statement in an X post:

"I haven’t seen much coverage of last night’s Vice-Presidential debate in the liberal media. This doesn’t really surprise me as JD Vance absolutely destroyed Walz. I don’t see how voters can vote for the Democrats after that debacle despite the biased moderators trying to help the Democrats."

Someone responding to the post said, "When you schedule gaslighting a full 24 hours too early … "

A Threads post sharing a screenshot of the exchange said, "Oops!"

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

There are no U.S. representatives named Jack Kimble. California has a State Assembly, not a House of Representatives, but there are no Assembly members named Jack Kimble either. 

The bio for @RepJackKimble’s account says he’s a "Republican representing CA’s 54th Dist. & co-sponsor of Poe’s Law."

There’s no 54th district in California; the state has 52 districts.

Poe’s Law, meanwhile, isn’t legislation. An internet user who called himself "Nathan Poe" on a creationist forum coined it in 2005, Wired reported. 

"During a discussion about perceived flaws in the theory of evolution, people began bemoaning how difficult it was to divine if participants were for real," Wired said. "Then Poe (who has never been identified IRL) posted this axiom: ‘POE’S LAW: Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article.’"

Subsequent X posts from @RepJackKimble reinforce the bit. 

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"Sorry, I had an intern send this out at 7am instead of 7pm," Kimble said in response to the premature debate post. "I’ll resend tonight."

"People don’t understand why I am blaming my intern about sending out tonight’s debate reaction early," Kimble said next. "The reason is if it had been sent out at the proper time, it would not have seemed strange that I made those comments. They only seem weird now because the debate hasn’t started yet."

Then: "Okay, fine the debate didn't happen yet.  Therefore, none of you can say me debate analysis is wrong."

And then: "It’s strange now how I’m suddenly the bad guy for posting my debate response a bit early. I’ve been scheduling my Tweets about the (Chicago) White Sox losing all season at least this far ahead of the ballgames and nobody ever complained."

Finally came a post from the purported intern: "Hi, my name is Tim Cheever and I am the intern who is responsible for Congressman Kimble’s Twitter and MySpace accounts. Unfortunately, I was late picking up the Congressman’s dry cleaning this morning and I was late to the office. Being a bit frazzled, I accidentally sent out."

We rate claims a genuine Republican congressman prematurely responded to the vice presidential debate False.