Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumYesterday the Sanders campaign had to fire a newly-hired video creator. Today it's Warren's turn
for personnel problems, since some old tweets from one of her campaign surrogates came to light:
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/elizabeth-warren-under-fire-as-campaign-surrogates-racist-homophobic-tweets-come-to-light/
Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is being heavily criticized for failing to vet a high-profile campaign surrogate with a history of making homophobic, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic comments on social media.
Activist Ashlee Marie Preston was featured in a Warren campaign video released October 10. In that video, Preston explains that shes a Warren Democrat because I am not afraid of the fight.
The video released by Twitter account @TeamWarren is captioned:
But the memory of Twitter is long and unforgiving.
Users eventually noticed several racist and otherwise controversial posts made by Preston over the years.
-snip-
The article links to the campaign video.
I'm not going to quote the tweets here, but you can find quite a few of them at the link. They're racist (especially anti-Asian but also anti-Latino), homophobic, and anti-choice. And the language is crude even by Twitter standards.
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Edting to link to one of a few threads posted yesterday about the quickly-fired new hire in the Sanders campaign, since my subject line mentions that problem:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287307776
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
TidalWave46
(2,061 posts)Warren doesn't have a history of doing this, and then hiring them at top staff positions.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Eric J in MN
(35,619 posts)Writing in 1972 that we should end all laws against gay relationships.
As mayor of Burlington, VT in the 1980s, supporting a gay pride parade and laws against discrimination.
As a Congressman in the 1990s, voting against DOMA & DADT.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Eric J in MN
(35,619 posts)NT
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
TidalWave46
(2,061 posts)This is much closer to the bigot that Sanders recently hired.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)After denying there was an issue, and then finally giving in? Huh. I don't see that anywhere
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)You linked to Bernie tweeters still upset over the firing yesterday digging up some old tweets of someone not on her campaign.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
George II
(67,782 posts)and not waiting until three years after the fact!
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)get more and more attention.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Celerity
(43,498 posts)of having Stockholm Syndrome
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Otto Lidenbrock
(581 posts)His staff and surrogates aren't working on social media credit.
The only reason this Warren staffer has been outed is they must have posted some things on twitter to piss off fans of rival candidates. Why else does things from years ago get brought back up?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)where she says she's a surrogate. In other words, the author of the article at Law & Crime is confused.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
TwilightZone
(25,479 posts)I don't see where the OP ever referred to the person as a staffer. In fact, quite the opposite. It's right there in the first sentence.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)When the Bernie campaign had to fire an actual staffer. No, it wasn't her turn because she doesn't have to fire a staffer. It isn't "Personnel problems." The OP doesn't understand the word(s) surrogate, staffer and/or personnel.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)For context:
Trans activist Ashlee Marie Preston points out that Weinstein's accusers, who are cisgender and white, "are a bit more protected by respectability politics than trans women of color." Trans victims, by contrast, aren't afforded the same level of sympathy. "Because of the continuous hyper-sexualization of trans identities in media, people believe that we 'bring it on ourselves' or that we 'desire' it more," she told me.
For a long time, she blamed herself for her own sexual abuse. After all, she reasoned, she'd been on drugs when she'd been assaulted. "I wondered if perhaps I would've made better decisions had my judgement not been as impaired," she explained. "However, the drugs were a social lubricant that numbed my conscious to the demoralizing things that were done to me out of survival. It all went hand in hand."
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Link to tweet
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primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)Twitter.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)...like @DrDooleyMD
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Link to tweet
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primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)Do they even know the hand they're playing with in that game?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)about the tweet posted, however, is the source.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)I wasn't aware that the aptly named Residue existed until the tweet was posted here.
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primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)If the Warren campaign disagrees with that description, they should say so.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)from folks with names like "DSA Swarthykin Caucus" and "Cursed Dem'-o-'Ween" to document the purported outrage.
According to the article, it's Brooke Hines who documented Ashlee's Preston's "problematic tweets".
Who is Brook Hines?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)The author of the article, Colin Kalmbacher, is an attorney who's also written for the Guardian and Real Clear Politics.
You seem to want to discuss everything EXCEPT Preston's racist and homophobic tweets, and her relationship to the Warren campaign.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)Here's this debunked right wing crap https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/new-docs-suggest-elizabeth-warren-lied-about-being-fired-from-teaching-job-was-actually-rehired/
Oh, you should love this one https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/democratic-lawmaker-says-joe-biden-actually-has-some-explaining-to-do-on-ukraine/
The MAGA students were the real victims https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/inflammatory-rhetoric-wapo-trashes-nick-sandmanns-lawsuit-as-political-stunt-asks-for-dismissal/
I didn't read the article about bathsalts from 2011, in the Guardian
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)Link to tweet
I know who the affianced, very concerned Colin "Kevin Bacon in Tremors" Kalmbacher is and am familiar with the stuff he writes.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)is that similar tweets as recent as last year have already surfaced. See the LA Blade article linked to in reply 35.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
melman
(7,681 posts)You know it's true. All this other irrelevant nonsense you're spamming the thread with is just that. Irrelevant nonsense.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
melman
(7,681 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
kcr
(15,320 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
melman
(7,681 posts)No. The point is, people are pretending Preston had no connection to the campaign. And that is obviously complete bullshit.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
kcr
(15,320 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
George II
(67,782 posts)....unlike another campaign that ignored similar and even WORSE behavior for three years because it was "too busy".
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
It's all over the thread.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)all in the service of distracting attention from a campaign's troubling hire of a youtuber who manipulated historic footage of MLK into a racist parody.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
melman
(7,681 posts)It just never ever gets old.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ecstatic
(32,731 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Aaron Pereira
(383 posts)I don't think you can do a vetting program for every person who happens to appear in a campaign video. If she was an actual employee firing would be appropriate.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
kcr
(15,320 posts)The truth was revealed by exposing her appearance on The Young Turks. Because everyone knows that the most effective surrogate is the secret one that no one knows about. That makes sense, right? Thank goodness Bernie tweeters were on the case.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)not a secret one.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)I'm going directly from the article in your OP. It links to a tweet that claims she hid the fact she was a surrogate, then posts the TYT video where she claims she is one. Then this meticulous Law and Crime journalist decides for some reason to use this Tweet source to call her a "paid" surrogate.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)She first rose to public attention after publicly confronting Caitlyn Jenner over her support for the Trump administration. She contributed her writing to a number of publications, and has been recognized for her activism by various media organizations and companies. She is active in the Los Angeles trans community, and is a member of multiple community organizations, including serving as the chair of communications and media sponsorship with group Los Angeles Pride, and as a community outreach member with the Human Rights Campaign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashlee_Marie_Preston
to treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)Who is The Residue? He certainly seems bent on slandering E Warren.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)...but any campaign staffer should expect to get caught if they have something dark in their background. I wonder why they even bother to apply?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
DrFunkenstein
(8,745 posts)I'm guessing the subtext of the OP is to suggest as much.
I'd expect this sort of stuff from Republicans, but here?
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)But we had multiple threads here yesterday about problems with a video creator who was going to be working with the Sanders campaign.
And when I checked Mediaite today, as I always do, this story at their sister site LawAndCrime.com showed up near the top of the page, and it reminded me of the problems the Sanders campaign had yesterday.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)Ashlee Marie Preston, a nationally known Los Angeles-based transgender activist and paid surrogate for the presidential campaign of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, came under heavy criticism Monday after a series of old homophobic and racist tweets surfaced over the weekend.
Preston was featured in a Warren campaign video released last Thursday, in advance of the HRC/CNN Equality Town Hall on Oct. 10. She was apparently scheduled to ask a question at the event but was pulled by CNN at the last minute. She told Out Magazine that she decided not to attend the historic event since being present but silent would be an act of erasure. CNN did not reply to Outs request for an explanation.
-snip-
Btw, I found that link thanks to a tweet from the Washington Blade:
Link to tweet
I've occasionally been searching Twitter for
warren preston
to see if there's any response from the Warren campaign.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)If she isn't a paid surrogate, the Warren campaign should explain that.
I suppose they could try denying she's been a surrogate at all, but that would be more difficult.
The Sanders campaign was pretty quick to distance itself from those problematic videos, as well as the person who created them.
I still haven't found any response from the Warren campaign to Preston's tweets.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)Also, campaign surrogates generally aren't paid, so it's unlikely in any case. Maybe you didn't know that.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)Preston attacking Sanders and his supporters.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
kcr
(15,320 posts)Has this been a thing between them and Preston for some time? Huh, that would explain it.
Or did someone go around digging up old Tweets of anyone associated with Warren to try to make a false equivalency after yesterday?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Cha
(297,655 posts)it's not working.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lapucelle
(18,319 posts)from the same dicey characters that Kalmbacher cites.
One of the twitter "researchers" is making what sounds like an inappropriate request.
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NB twitter "researchers": The "I didn't really mean what everyone thought I meant " excuse has already been taken.
Link to tweet
?lang=en
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
seaglass
(8,173 posts)Also, I'd still vote Warren over Biden in the primary so...
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)in the past for those tweets. The problem there is that similar tweets as recent as last year have already surfaced. See the LA Blade article linked to in reply 35.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
seaglass
(8,173 posts)On edit, yeah I wouldn't reduce it to just "drug problems" maybe have a little empathy for the bad place she was in or not.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
BlueMississippi
(776 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden