[Python] Cannot establish SSH Connection with String Public Key in Python

I'm trying to establish an SSH connection to a remote server with paramiko using a public key as a string and am getting a paramiko.ssh_exception.BadHostKeyException error.

Here is the code I am using:

import paramiko
import base64
from paramiko import RSAKey
from base64 import decodebytes

ssh = paramiko.SSHClient()

hostname = "hostname"
username = "user"
password = "password"
host_key = "AAAAB3NHKZ1FTmw+KBIe..."


keyObj = RSAKey(data=decodebytes(host_key.encode()))
ssh.get_host_keys().add(hostname=hostname, keytype="ssh-rsa", key=keyObj)
ssh.connect(hostname = hostname, username = username, password = password)
sftp = ssh.open_sftp()


The error details indicate that my original host key is correct, but the RSA key that is passed changed in the process of decoding and encoding the string:

Host key for server 'hostname' does not match: got 'AAAAB3NHKZ...', expected 'AAAAB3NHKZ1FTmw+KBIe...'

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