Breitbart staffer recruited Sanders activist to get African Americans to support GOP or stay home

[ehrnst]

Breitbart staffer recruited Sanders activist Bruce Carter to get African Americans to support the Republican—or stay home.

Breitbart News landed an election scoop that went viral in August 2016: “Exclusive: ‘Black Men for Bernie’ Founder to End Democrat ‘Political Slavery’ of Minority Voters… by Campaigning for Trump.”

If the splashy, counterintuitive story, which circulated on such conservative websites as Truthfeed and Infowars, wasn't exactly fake news, it was carefully orchestrated.

The story’s writer—an employee of the conservative website run by Steve Bannon before he took over Donald Trump’s campaign—spent weeks courting activist Bruce Carter to join Trump’s cause. He approached Carter under the guise of interviewing him. The writer eventually dropped the pretense altogether, signing Carter up for a 10-week blitz aimed at convincing black voters in key states to support the Republican real estate mogul, or simply sit out the election. Trump’s narrow path to victory tightened further if Hillary Clinton could attract a Barack Obama-level turnout.
.................................................................................................

Carter’s recollections and correspondence, which he shared after a falling-out with his fellow Trump supporters, provide a rare look inside the no-holds-barred nature of the Republican’s campaign and how it explored new ways to achieve an age-old political aim: getting the right voters to the polls—and keeping the wrong ones away.

“If you can’t stomach Trump, just don’t vote for the other people and don’t vote at all,” Carter, 47, recalls telling black voters. It’s the message he says the Trump campaign wanted him to deliver. “That’s what they wanted, that’s what they got.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-29/inside-the-pro-trump-effort-to-keep-black-voters-from-the-polls

[mcar]

1. Link not working

[ehrnst]

2. Fixed - thanks! (nt)

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Try this...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-29/inside-the-pro-trump-effort-to-keep-black-voters-from-the-polls

[Cha]

5. It didn't work for me at first..

but then I tried again before I posted it and it worked. Must have been fixed in the mean time.

So thanks, mcar

[mcar]

7. Thanks for the fix, Ehrnst!

[Cha]

4. How could anyone be so suckered in

by Breitbart? Wonder how Bruce Carter feels now? He doesn't look too happy there. It's tragic the way so many were duped to assist Russia in getting the mad man rigged in.

Oh I see.. the teaming up with trump shite ended badly for him. thanks a lot Bruce Carter.

Thank you for the article.. Good find.. even though it sickens me.

[True Blue American]

18. If we are supposed to feel

Sorry for him,don’t! He made his bed.

[Hortensis]

35. Yup! Most of these supposed suckers are NOT good people lead astray.

Again and again we see they have serious ethical and judgement problems going in. People like those at Breitbart look for signs of their own kind same as any other criminal recruiting.

This supposed major Sanders supporter's willingness to push for Trump suggests he was dirty from the start, likely an opportunist who tried for a flight to the stars with the Sanders campaign because he was shut out by the pros in the Clinton campaign. Vetting for character is a good thing.

You know, I really wish we knew about all those who turned these political grifters down flat, not just the sleazebags who leaped in. I'm sure between those too ethical, those too easily nauseated, and those too smart there must be far more of the former.

[Marcuse]

28. $$$$$

[Me.]

29. There Been A Lot Of People Being Suckered In

all over the place.

[mcar]

6. Well-researched article

Good reporting. I don't even know what to say about an African American person who worked to suppress AA turnout. I hope he gets hit with FEC violations, cause duh.

[snort]

12. How about: He's an idiot?

[mcar]

13. Or purely mercenary

[ehrnst]

14. Not just any idiot - one who is good at organizing.

Perhaps his choices of who to organize for showed some lapses in judgement.

[SidDithers]

8. Type "Black men for Bernie" in quotes, into the site search box upper right..

then sit back and laugh.

Sid

[mcar]

9. Just did

A trip down memory lane. Thanks for the laugh!

[ehrnst]

10. That was interesting...(nt)

[George II]

17. Does trump's latest Black supporter come up in the search, Killer Mike?

[NCTraveler]

23. wow. Just wow.

Some of those all giddy about "Black Men For Bernie" talked about them as if they were their new toys. I mean just giddy like on Christmas morning.

[IronLionZion]

11. Only one political party tries to stop Americans from voting

And they are shockingly effective at it.

[EffieBlack]

16. One of the points I make when doing GOTV and am faced with an African American telling me their vote

doesn't matter.

"If your vote really didn't matter, why would the other side try so hard to stop you from casting it? THEY seem to think your vote matters. Why don't you?"

[ehrnst]

19. Yes - I would say to my far lefty friends:

"If both candidates are just the same because "WALL STREET!!" why do the Koch Bros spend millions trying to stop only one?"

[EffieBlack]

20. Yep

And if voting didn't matter because the "oligarchs" already control everything, why do the wealthiest people vote EVERY Election Day?

[ehrnst]

22. Indeed.

[Hortensis]

50. Yup. All power comes from the voters. But our control

over this power is limited to helping decide who gets to have it. Whoever wins office gets our collective power and will use it -- including that of all those who didn't bother to vote.

The Koch types know that, which is why they work so hard creating unfounded disillusionment to discourage voting, plus massive voter suppression other ways of course, while steering as many of those who will vote to their candidates as possible.

[Eliot Rosewater]

45. Personally I dont even want to DISCUSS a candidate until I have seen MANY YEARS of TAX

returns.

[ehrnst]

57. That's a basic litmus test for a candidate with nothing to hide. (nt)

[mountain grammy]

32. That is THE best point and the only thing to say to anyone

who says "my vote doesn't matter." I've said it many times myself and it does seem to resonate.

[betsuni]

15. K&R

[NCTraveler]

21. .

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10668970

[HenryWallace]

24. Wow, MSM belching out these stories like clockwork!

It's almost like someone is frightened ....

[NCTraveler]

26. No doubt. We can't be so easily fooled again.

Gotta stop Trump. While the vetting is happening years late we must help a minority of democratic voters from being fooled again. They were simply easy marks.

[HenryWallace]

30. Fantastic, here let me help!

[link:|

[JackRiddler]

31. *Snort*

Looked for a "like" button.

[mountain grammy]

33. Yep!

[ehrnst]

40. Yes, investigating potential FEC violations by the Trump campaign is

just silly.

[HenryWallace]

44. Unless you don't care about winning elections....

... and if you do, then it is just an incredible distraction.


[link:

Link to tweet

|

[Eliot Rosewater]

47. I am confused. Walker does understand there are Nazi fascists controlling all branches of the

government?

Walker understands you cant have a minimum wage law AT ALL let alone a higher one if the Nazi Fascists maintain control? Let alone universal healthcare or a basic income law?

??

[HenryWallace]

55. What Walker understands .....

.... is that we have a democratically elected "Nazi fascist."

The way to change things is to win elections.....

And the way to win elections is to full-throatily embrace policies that materially improve voters lives....

Really not that hard is it..... "??"

[Eliot Rosewater]

60. Wrong, how you win is to vote for ANY democrat and if the most likely to win a district

democrat is a rightwinger you vote for that democrat anyway otherwise there is no country, let alone guaranteed incomes.

[HenryWallace]

62. Yes offering the same thing; that ought to work!

Welcome to the 21st century. Millennials & Gen Z do not give a flying flip about political parties and just want their lives to get better.

A campaign slogan of "we are better than they are" only sow the seeds of our next defeat. You aspire to build an impotent Party; unable to act and ultimately only good for absorbing blows.

[Eliot Rosewater]

63. Stop doing Putin's job for him please.

[ehrnst]

68. "Impotent?"

Is the Democratic party not "man enough" for you?

[HenryWallace]

69. I guess you need help...

[link:|

[ehrnst]

70. And used usually by men as a metaphor, because

erection = strength.

Not usually by secure men, tho. Perhaps it's you that "needs the help?"

[ehrnst]

52. What does this have to do with the OP?

Are you saying that journalists investigating FEC financial violation by the Trump campaign, along with attempts by the GOP to supress black voter turnount for Dems will "lose Democrats the election" and "prevent universal health care and universal basic income?"

Are you saying that the GOP was attempting to use this man to accomplish both before Democrats do?

[HenryWallace]

56. I agree, I think we are talking about two different things.

Sorry

[NCTraveler]

59. Not sure how that is in reference to my comment.

Outlines the victimhood of the Bro to a T.

[ehrnst]

58. #IPreferToStandOnTheRightSideOfHistory (nt)

[ehrnst]

41. Or investigating FEC violations by the Trump campaign.

Those haters.

[NCTraveler]

25. .

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1280185753

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1017362762

https://www.democraticunderground.com/12511735581

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1017336725

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/12511455108

It's like they had encountered something shiny that they had never seen before. It's one of the most insidious forms of racism.

[ehrnst]

39. Yep. (nt)

[brush]

27. Wonder how much it took to buy this uncle tom's cooperation?

[iluvtennis]

34. This guy and what he did is sickening. Karma will bite him in the butt.

[jayschool2013]

36. Ratfucking

That's pretty much the entire Republican party's election strategy since 1968, probably earlier. And they've gotten really good at it. And that's really bad for the rest of us.

[George II]

49. And apparently there are plenty of people willing to fall for it, too. Back in 2016 and now.

[Lil Missy]

37. Imagine that. Using a third party to disrupt. Surely this is a first.

[NastyRiffraff]

38. In many ways, this isn't surprising..

unfortunately. I remember, all too well, the giddy, celebratory posts here at the very THOUGHT of Black Men for Bernie. (Why just men? Maybe he knew black women had too much sense to believe his bullshit?)

I do hope certain people read this, and weep. More importantly, learn something.

[Alethia Merritt]

42. No black man should EVER tell anyone not to vote. Too many lost lives getting this right.

Anyone with half a brain should have known that what was being spread about Hillary was just a GOP/RW vast conspiracy. If you have followed the lives of the Clintons the worst you would find is Bill's unfaithfulness to his marriage but they are a couple who has dedicated their lives to service of others. I am embarrassed that so many of my people are so prone to brain-washing and seem to no be able to discern truth from fiction.

[ehrnst]

67. Indeed. People died for that right. (nt)

[Hekate]

43. KnR

I can't think of anything to say that doesn't involve several cusswords in the subject line.

[George II]

46. I haven't read through all the responses, but this was posted here on DU back in September 2016:

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10141576024

'Black Men For Bernie’ Leader Now Backs Trump

[Eliot Rosewater]

48. Let me know when it is OK for me to predict what WILL probably happen based on the

past, even though I am not allowed to discuss the past.

[peggysue2]

61. LOL!!

[ehrnst]

54. Yep - but the potential FEC violations that this involve didn't appear until now.

Good find.

[Gothmog]

51. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and relies on voter suppression to win races

[Blue_Tires]

53. Of course... Anyone surprised??

[Scurrilous]

64. K&R

[SunSeeker]

65. K & R for exposure.

[lunamagica]

66. K&R for visibility.