Well I have read a number of posts this morning about people making up stuff about Biden

[Peacetrain]

From certain operatives of other candidates forwarding messages to an all out remake of an interview.. all made up. And people are desperate enough and lacking a moral center (which by the way is why we are in such trouble today, we have a candidate in office who lacks a moral center) to use this to attack their opponents.

Well the issue is, people are making things up about Biden.. our opponent in the White House, his failures are facts.. give that a thought.

Give this a thought also, when you make that crap up, you are giving ammunition to the other side.

Just saying. Not a good look

[bpositive]

1. a positive way to look at this is

Biden has been vetted year over year and the best that people can do it make up shit to try to make him look bad. He needs an immediate response team to handle this crap because it is just going to get worse.

[sacto95834]

11. I wish they would push Biden harder...

So far the Democrats have treated him (as with most all fellow candidates) with respect. I think the only one to hit him pretty hard was Senator Harris in the first debate. I have followed VP Biden's career since the 80s and he has a lot of baggage that hasn't really been mined. Better to get it all out now than to have that Orange Menace do it in the Fall - he will be brutal and blow things out of proportion. Just look what he did to HRC - lies, lies and more lies.

[BannonsLiver]

2. They're losing and it's starting to crystallize

My guess is their internals must be flat at best. Sorry to see them go scorched earth amid another losing primary campaign.

[sheshe2]

54. Yes. nt

[MineralMan]

3. I noticed that, too. It's very disheartening.

The path that leads down is not a good one in any way.

[Pantagruel]

4. Over 40 years of vetting

JB has survived all that scrutiny and comes out smelling like a rose.The lies won't stick.

[ritapria]

5. Are you sure all of Joe's operatives are angels without wings ?

[Sloumeau]

6. As a Catholic, I suspect that Joe Biden prefers his angels to actually have wings. :)

[peggysue2]

14. LOL!!

That made me laugh on a day I've been deadass sick. Yes--as a Catholic in abstentia--I suspect Joe prefers his angels with wings.

[Sloumeau]

17. Good, I am glad that it made you laugh.

I was raised Catholic, so I know how we think.

[TwilightZone]

8. Two wrongs don't make a right.

"It's ok because others do it" isn't a terribly convincing argument.

[Cha]

16. Joe Biden Campaign would never even think

of editing a vid of BS.

The BS campaign is desperate and it shows.

Link to tweet

[Peacetrain]

48. True that Cha!! true that

[Cha]

53. Mahalo Peacetrain.. it's Not a case of "two wrongs don't

make a right".. it's a case of dsirota resorting to dirty smear tricks 'cause their desperation is palpable.

[LongtimeAZDem]

9. Biden's team has done nothing in the same universe as Sirota's attack. If you're ok with it,

you're no better, and your calls to "elevate the discourse" are completely dishonest.

[bearsfootball516]

10. Really? Biden's campaign has done nothing like this.

It’s an absolute false slander by those at the top of the Sanders campaign.

[Demsrule86]

13. David Sirota is an out and out liar and works for Sanders...He is spewing lies on Twitter...I might

have had Sanders as my second choice in the primary..(.at the moment I have no second choice) because he might do well in Wisconsin....better than the others...but Sirota's lies and the fact he hired Stein voters has made me decide to support no one besides Biden in the primary and vote for whoever wins in the general and hope for the best. If Biden is not our nominee than I think we lose the general but I will do my best to win ...vote blue no matter who. So I can say with great firmness that yes Biden has played fair and not allowed operatives to spew lies.

[Cha]

15. Are you sure trying to cover for what sirata is doing

is smart?

Your attempts to distract from this vulgar desperate attempt at editing a video is once again Not Working.

Link to tweet

[LanternWaste]

44. Thankfully, no one at all (other than yourself) is arguing or implying otherwise.

But I get why you need to focus on your own inferred point to the exclusion of the OP... else-wise, there'd be little else for you to argue against.

[StClone]

12. I support Joe-fight back the attack

You have to attack the posts with that false crap vehemently with supporting facts. To me I had to go with one of the three stalwarts of this party and I chose Warren...but will go for Bernie or Joe if they are the primary.

[George II]

18. Unfortunately some of that is being circulated by a candidate's campaign.

[ancianita]

21. The campaign is not the candidate. Focus on candidates. Call the candidate, complain directly.

Let's not fall into conflating the two around here.

And don't expect candidates to be perfect micromanagers of their campaign people, who are human, frazzled, and sometimes think a "palpable hit" = another vote. We need to support them, not be like them.

Call the campaigns, tell them how they're hurting the party vote with infighting because that spills over into media.

[George II]

23. Those circulating the disgusting videos and smears are among the top echelon....

....of the campaign, have previous histories, and still were hired.

If the candidate is unaware of what they're doing he isn't qualified to be president.

[ancianita]

26. IF. By not knowing you're falling into conflating the two. No candidate should have to micromanage

or monitor their people's speech.

Assume that the campaign people are hurting their candidate and move on.

You're not arguing productively arguing with the candidate when you argue about their campaign people.

This can no longer be candidate or campaign staff over party, which then turns into party over country.

Email or call the candidate and tell them about the provocations that make media pick on our party, and which could hurt public confidence in the party.

If we refuse to stay focused on winning then what's the point of this forum.

[LongtimeAZDem]

28. We're not talking about "micromanaging"; this is Bernie Sanders' speechwriter, who has a long

history of this type of attack. Either Bernie knows and agrees with these posts, or he is totally clueless about the vile nature of those he employs.

[ancianita]

31. He's trying to WIN, okay? Biden can defend himself with his better record, anyway, at the right time

In the meantime don't sweat the tactics.

[LongtimeAZDem]

34. That attitude is precisely how we got the scumbag in the White House

[ancianita]

37. What attitude -- Bernie's? Or Sirota's? Or mine? NO Democrat will ever precisely use what got that

scumbag into the WH.

Are you really so worried about a tactic that you'd attribute it to the candidate's character?

[LongtimeAZDem]

38. The tactic IS the character; Bernie's and Sirota's, and I find this whole defense apalling

[ancianita]

39. No. It's not. It's a campaign TACTIC. That is not character. You're mistaken. I'm defending now?

Don't make this about you or me. You're taking too much personally about the candidate and campaign, and then spreading it around. Don't use language like "appalling," just because you're upset.

Don't make the perfect character the enemy of the good. Or campaign, either, for that matter.

Let Biden and his campaign handle this.

[nini]

41. If you have to use those type of tactics in a campaign

You are an asshole and exactly what we are trying to get away from in getting rid of Trump.

[LongtimeAZDem]

46. Hear, hear

[LongtimeAZDem]

45. I'm not; I'm making the despicable the enemy of the civilized, and the tactic reveals the character

as does the defense of it.

I have no desire to interact with you further.

[ancianita]

47. Everybody upset here with Sirota should just trust Biden to handle him. That's all I'm saying.

[ancianita]

56. Of course not. But who's lying is the issue. And that you prove it's a lie is the other.

Disprove the lying with links. Email Sanders, lodge a Democratic voter complaint. Tell him you'll hit social media with the proven lies, link all that on press posts in social media threads.

OR you could leave it up to Biden to disprove.

IF this is as significant as you say, Biden and his campaign will handle it. I would trust them to do that.

[George II]

36. Keeping track of what one's National Press Secretary and Speechwriter isn't "micromanaging"....

We're talking about:

David Sirota - Speechwriter
Briahna Gray - National Press Secretary
Nina Turner - Campaign Co-chair
Warren Gunnels - Senior Advisor to Bernie Sanders

Those aren't managers of field offices or fundraisers. They're in the top echelon of the campaign, kind of like members of a president's cabinet. If he doesn't know what they're doing, how can he bean effective president?

[ancianita]

49. I'm pretty sure that Biden can make that a campaign issue if he chooses. Notice how no Democrat,

just Trump, has ever put his top echelon of campaign people into cabinet positions, though, have they.

The same will hold true for every Democrat running on the Democratic ticket.

These arguments about his campaign staff are not going to lose his voters. To amplify this only provokes media to get in on shade casting the whole party as infighting and problematic for voters.

Biden will continue to beat Sanders as he's already shown he's superior in political experience and campaign staffing, and everyone knows he'll be superior in presidential transition and cabinet appointments.

[ancianita]

57. I hear you.

[vsrazdem]

58. Well maybe you should let him know, since he's your preferred candidate.

[safeinOhio]

40. The buck stops stops at the top.

BS needs to fire the guy yesterday.

[ancianita]

19. That ammunition point should be DU's guide.No candidate's light is brighter by blowing out another's

1. No ammunition for the jackals. If you can't praise a candidate, say nothing. Nothing. Not even a post about something negative someone ELSE in media said.

AND when the Repub hell hounds rev up their attack engines, they will amp up every last damn niggling, shade casting, character impugning issue that we gave them to flood the horse race media with their jackal noise.

I became Undecided after the best man lost -- Governor Jay Inslee -- cuz Earth and Climate don't care about any president who doesn't put them first.

He couldn't sell his record, expertise or climate project plans, so we'll see if the next president realizes his extreme executive expertise and importance.

2. Our ammunition for us needs to be this:

Rule our passions, don't let our passions rule us.

ALL Democrats on their worst days are better than ANY Republicans on their best days.

Being up against the most venal, corrupt and oath breaking party in U.S. history, we should never, ever use their playbook rhetoric that demands the perfect be the enemy of the good. THAT is what they do to US.

We don't have to be uniform about differences, but we have to be unified.

ALL Democrats on their worst days are better than ANY Republicans on their best days.

Focus on every single voter category -- blacks, women, LGBTQ, troops, vets, YOUTH, tariffs, infrastructure, childrenchildrenchildren, foreign dictators, disaster relief, disaster relief, disaster relief -- Trump has hurt in personal ways across the whole country, and remind them every damn day just how he will follow through to do worse, and that will GOTV in Obama numbers.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. If he wins, it's difficult to imagine everyone rallying

Behind him. Hope so. But if they don't we are totally screwed with Dipshit for 5 years.

[Perseus]

24. If Biden wins the nomination I am sure everyone will rally behind him

I don't think that is an issue, the big issue right now is being objective and choosing the best candidate to represent us to not only defeat the con, which is going to be difficult because of the cheating that is going on and will intensify as we get closer to the presidential election, but to reverse the damage done by this administration and to move us forward to more progressive resolutions.

When I think of Joe saying that he would not rule out the possibility of choosing a republican as VP, I want to understand his real thought process, is this Joe being naive, or is this a strategy to sway some repubs his way? I would like to think it is the latter, I would really be disappointed if he were to win the nomination to see Jim Jordan, or Moscow-Mitch at his side. As an strategy it may be a brilliant move, but if its a genuine and honest thought then...

[ancianita]

29. Oh, come ON. Biden's not ruling the possibility IN, either. Stop worrying yourself. We've got to win

and no Democrat would ever say such a thing out of any motive than pure campaign tactic and water testing.

If we're so fragile that we can't trust past gaffes or campaign rhetoric, then we need to get out of the primary dynamic because we'll just exhaust ourselves too soon to GOTV later.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

30. Hope you are right. Yes, #1 have to beat the monster. Business as usual campaigns

will not do it. Time to think 100% outside the box. Gather the best minds - psychiatrists, pollsters, admen, big money donors and strategize. My thought is that there are a zillion uncovered acts of malfeasance that are more non-political that might persuade people he needs to be booted out. But - takes a completely different kind of thinking and campaigning.

[R B Garr]

22. The writing was on the wall about this happening.

Even his “gaffes” are mostly deliberately changed words or truncated sentences. Deliberately taken out of context.

Then there were those exposed BS ideations about his “voting”, which were really non votes, but the smear about Democrats was sickening, as usual. None of what is happening is surprising, though.

[Perseus]

25. Remember that there are videos to corroborate many of Joe's gaffes, this is the 21st century

Can't hide from the videos, and there are plenty of them out there.

And in an era when most politicians, mostly republicans, do not like to talk about the issues but instead their efforts are spent in trying to bash their opponents, then we cannot expect anything else, it is a bad situation, but it is also up to use to separate the noise from the truth and rely on the truth.

[R B Garr]

27. There are plenty of truncated words which means the

videos are fake. Fake means lies. Your tactic here is to force attention away from the lies told about Biden.

[Perseus]

50. You got me wrong

1. I don't dislike Biden, on the contrary, I like him very much, I do think he is a good man, and I admire his wife very much.
2. You can't say everything is fake and videos this or that, that is not the case, there are uninterrupted videos that show Joe's gaffes, to try to run away from that is disingenuous at best.
3. The fake stuff is the defense trump and his people, including fox news, use when they don't have a good case to defend what is in plain view to everyone, we saw that during the impeachment.

I am not trying to "force" attention to anything, I do my due diligence every time before I vote, I am hoping we can get the best candidate to lead this country out of the mess we are in, I have no agenda to go against Biden or any of the candidates, we either work with the truth or we don't, we either accept the facts about our chosen candidate or we will fall in the same old that prevents the country from moving forward into a more progressive world.

I understand Biden's strengths and his weaknesses, I don't need to force attention on anything, the facts are there for all of us to see, read and hear.

[R B Garr]

60. I'm not misunderstanding you, but your response is not about the subject matter

or what is happening right now. It's obvious there has been frustration that some opposed to Biden have been exaggerating the so-called "gaffes," but their intended damage hasn't stuck. Instead, Biden is getting stronger. So here come the efforts to make things up and change his word to increase the negativity towards him.

This thread is about what is happening now and the lies and dirty tricks to change what Biden said to drum up a bunch of phony outrage and paint him negatively because they can't get traction with their gaffe kerfuffles.

Of course Biden has been on camera for decades, but that's not what this is about. It's about lying, changing his words, truncating his words. No one said he never made gaffes, but what is happening now is outright lies, deception and dirty political tricks.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

33. We literally have zero idea what the forces to diminish him look like - who they are -

who's paying them - who they work for. It's really a secret enemy to all running against trump.

[R B Garr]

43. Exactly! That's just one reason why his donation hauls are...interesting.

We do know that Tad Devine worked in Ukraine with Paul Manafort, a now convicted felon. Paul Manafort worked for Trump. Let's hope both aren't running opposition campaigns against Democrats.

[C Moon]

32. It's "may the best person win." And if they have to make up crap to win

they may as well consider themselves the worst.
Making up lies about a candidate is a Republican trick. If they are spreading that, they do not belong on DU.

[ArtTownsend]

35. I agree, there are plenty of real things to criticize Biden for without making things up.

[Gothmog]

42. A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden signals what's coming

Link to tweet

A video that was edited in a monumentally dishonest fashion to make Joe Biden sound racist just circulated all over Twitter. Distressingly, some reporters and people with large Twitter followings tweeted out the video, before others drew their attention to the full context, causing them to backtrack
.
It is simply incredible that anyone in the business of informing people would circulate a video like this before verifying the full context. Have we really learned nothing in the past few years? One hopes this episode will be taken as a cautionary tale of what’s coming.

The video in question, which your humble blogger will not link to, shows only 19 seconds of a 13-minute monologue that Biden delivered in New Hampshire. Biden had been asked by an audience member to speak about his work and his agenda on sexual assault and domestic violence....

One of the original purveyors of this disinformation (again, we won’t link) is still pretending this was an honest depiction, and is accusing those who supplied the corrective context of being the “real” purveyors of disinformation. Take this as a glimpse of what’s coming.....

All this is a sign of what the Democratic nominee could face. It’s no wonder that some Democrats are worried we might even see “deepfake” media manipulations. Imagine such ultra-sophisticated video distortions of Biden’s rambles, retweeted by Trump, and perhaps even by reporters.

Trump views disinformation not as a scourge to be combated in the name of protecting our democracy, but as an ally. In this particular case, Trump has not retweeted the video of Biden — yet. But let’s try to learn from this.

[TidalWave46]

51. Someones top campaign staff is tripping over itself....

To put out lies about Biden. It's clearly coordinated and from the top.