Left-wing magazine writer Will Sommer – employed by The Daily Beast – has falsely claimed that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was “invited” into the White House when in fact he was on a public tour.

The claim – made by Sommer on Twitter – uses a picture from Tarrio’s Parler account where the Proud Boys chief is standing in front of the White House.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio appears to have been invited to the White House. Pic from his Parler account this morning. pic.twitter.com/aQ0u4RgoFz

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) December 12, 2020

Sommer didn’t check his claim about Tarrio being “invited” before making it and attracting over 1,000 retweets. The story was later clarified by BBC reporter Anthony Zurcher, who said: “Deputy WH Press Secretary Judd Deere says Proud Boys chair Enrique Tarrio was on a public tour and he was not invited by the White House and did not meet with President Trump.”

Zurcher’s tweet has only 12 retweets at the time of publication.

Deputy WH Press Secretary Judd Deere says Proud Boys chair Enrique Tarrio was on a public tour and he was not invited by the White House and did not meet with President Trump. https://t.co/i7EF3q38wK

— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) December 12, 2020

Sommer – who has interacted with people threatening to “blow up” and “shoot” conservative events – has not clarified his false claim at the time of publication, and Twitter has not placed a warning message on the fake news.

The Office of the First Lady to announced in early September that White House public tours would resume on Saturday, September 12, 2020.