Idaho governor says little about controversial lieutenant governor photo

Nearly four days after Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin posted and then quickly deleted a controversial photo to her Facebook account, Gov. Brad Little finally got a chance to talk to McGeachin about the issue on Monday and then issue his own statement .

Gov. Little had little to say about it:

“I discussed the issue with the Lt. Governor. All of us must be accountable for our actions and their implications, and I trust her to do the same,” Little said in his two-sentence statement.

The photo, posted Thursday evening, shows McGeachin standing in front of her Statehouse office door with two men displaying identical hand gestures while McGeachin makes a heart-shaped gesture with her hands.

Various interpretations of what it means caused an uproar Friday with local and national groups condemning McGeachin. Meanwhile, the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s Wayne Hoffman blasted local media for covering the story, calling the reporting sensationalist and biased.

In a media statement issued Friday afternoon, McGeachin said she “immediately” deleted the post because, “a few people had begun erroneously assigning sinister motives” contrary to her character.

“The photo was intended to show support for Engel and nothing more,” McGeachin said in the statement. “No other messages were intended in this photo. To claim otherwise is ridiculous, and is part of a larger narrative to paint conservative leaders as embracing identity politics.”

The two men in the photo with McGeachin are Anthony Dephue and James Ward, members of Idaho’s Three Percent and founders of Idaho Political Prison Foundation.

Both men are wearing orange shirts reading “Engel,” referring to Idahoan Todd C. Engel, who is in federal prison over his role in the Cliven Bundy standoff in Nevada.

In the photo, Dephue and Ward are each making a hand gesture similar to an “OK” sign.

Anti-Defamation League right-wing extremism historian and expert Mark Pitcavage explained to the Statesman on Friday what the men’s hand gestures mean and why they are referencing Engel.

“The Three Percenter hand gesture is very similar to the ‘OK’ hand gesture with its recent controversial attributions over the past two years, especially if they happen to do it from a certain angle,” Pitcavage said.

“I do not think there is anything to suppositions that these guys were trying to do any kind of ‘white power’ symbol,” Pitcavage further explained. “I think they were doing a Three Percenter symbol.”

Dephue told the Statesman the gesture pertains to Three Percenters, and that he and Ward were at the Capitol to raise awareness about Engel’s case.

“The three extended digits are one finger for each ‘i’ in three percent. That is it. There is nothing else to that,” he said.