Bernie Sanders Hires Fierce Biden, Beto, Harris Critic As Top Adviser

[George II]

By Cameron Joseph
March 19, 2019 11:35 am

Bernie Sanders has brought an old ally back into the fold — one who has a long-running history of painting a number of Sanders’ top 2020 foes as being corporatist traitors.

Sanders’ campaign announced Tuesday that he’s hired journalist David Sirota as a senior communications adviser and speechwriter.

Sirota began his career in populist-liberal politics, working as Sanders’ press secretary back when he was a House member before working for a number of Democratic candidates and elected officials.

But he’s spent the last decade working as a journalist for a variety of liberal publications, where he’s written some scathing takedowns of Sanders’ likely 2020 opponents.

Sirota has been particularly harsh towards Biden. As Biden geared up for a potential presidential run in 2015, Sirota authored a lengthy piece detailing Biden’s decades-long work to help push through a bankruptcy bill that benefitted Biden’s home-state credit card industry. He’s far from the only reporter to dig into the issue, and it will likely be a problem for Biden on the campaign trail. But that’s not the only criticism he’s leveled at Biden — Sirota has highlighted a number of other issues he takes with the former vice president in various stories and since-deleted tweets in recent months as it’s become clear that Biden would likely be squaring off against Sanders (and before Sirota had publicly acknowledged his role helping Sanders).

Sirota has also been leading the charge against O’Rourke, stoking a growing online feud between Sanders and O’Rourke supporters that has already left its mark on the primary. Sirota went on a tweetstorm in December attacking O’Rourke’s supporters in the oil and gas industry, ignoring the fact that O’Rourke’s campaign didn’t accept any corporate PAC money (he appears to have recently deleted those tweets). That came the same week that he penned a pair of columns accusing O’Rourke of voting regularly with President Trump and slamming him for following President Obama’s model of working with big business rather than treating it as the enemy.

(more...)

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/bernie-sanders-hires-fierce-biden-beto-harris-critic-as-top-adviser

[grumpyduck]

1. Bad move, Bernie.

This is not the time to get into pissing matches with other Democrats.

[Mr Tibbs]

58. Separating himself from the rest of the field

Brilliance.

Sanders doesn't get into 'pissing matches' so there's that.

[Maru Kitteh]

81. Actually, BS is rather adept at pissing matches. The main complaint of many Democrats

is that they feel it is too often unfortunately directed, and divisive.

So there's that.

[NurseJackie]

84. Have you seen Sirota's "election eve" twitter smears on Hillary?

We're talking WAY past the primary and WAY past the convention... this fellow was STILL working to "kneecap" Hillary. The contest was over, and he was LITERALLY doing everything he could to HELP TRUMP to win.

I think that speaks very clearly about his moral compass and tells us a lot about him (and it's not at all flattering.) I think it's fair for anyone to question the judgement and motivation of anyone who would hire him for ANY job.

Link to tweet

[still_one]

2. His message is loud and clear with the Sirota and Nina Turner appointments, he doesn't care about

getting support from those who supported Hillary in 2016

It will be interesting to see how that works out for him

[BlueFlorida]

4. WOW

Those are some grotesquely anti-Clinton stories and they are false at face value.

[R B Garr]

14. Wow, disgusting liar. Headlines straight outta Moscow.

Putin-esque.

[Maru Kitteh]

82. I missed it. What was the Kremlin line this time?

[R B Garr]

89. Just sounding like the attacks before. Those came from

3 campaigns: Trump, Sanders, Stein. Noting the familiarity. I wish I could post more about Tad Devine...so much to know about those connections.

[oasis]

20. If David Sirota was hired to be a hatchet man, it will backfire. nt

[JaneQPublic]

45. It's a wonder Sirota didn't get sued for plagiarism.

Lots of his anti-Hillary articles seem to borrow heavily from the book "Clinton Cash," which turned out to be a full employment initiative for fact-checkers.

[OilemFirchen]

5. I like the elimination of pretense.

Last edited Tue Mar 19, 2019, 06:36 PM - Edit history (1)

One no longer has to explain who butters Sirota's bread, as if it wasn't obvious.

Same with Omidyar's First Look at Me "Media".

[Cha]

54. Absolutely! great hiring

instincts, BS.

[MineralMan]

6. Not to mention attacks on the Clintons.

Uffda!

[madville]

7. Sounds like a good hire for Bernie

Aligns with his message. I wouldn't hire someone who was a cheerleader for my opponents, I would want an attack dog to put them on non-stop defense.

I'm a Biden supporter and he will have to defend his record and explain some of his past, that's expected. He's still going to be the most qualified and experienced person to clean up the current situation.

[Cha]

71. Sounds desperate to me..

Link to tweet

[Maru Kitteh]

83. Sounds like a complete asshole, Cha.

[Cha]

85. Oh, he is.

[CentralMass]

8. Were the articles factual ?

[comradebillyboy]

12. no

[R B Garr]

15. LOL

Putin would approve.

[R B Garr]

29. I said nothing about Beto. You are obviously the one

seeing Beto as a threat enough to spread this lie about him.

It’s been well documented that there was a smear campaign about Beto’s contributions and how they were presented as big oil /fossil fuel when they were individuals contributing to him, edit: we know whose campaign spread this smear...

I bet you’re not too interested in the Tad Devine/Paul Manafort connections or the unresolved FEC flags from Bernie’s campaign, so campaign contributions aren’t really the issue here.

[CentralMass]

35. What us this post about ? Bernie Sanders Hires Fierce Biden, Beto, Harris Critic As Top Adviser

Hiwever since zi am sure to ge alertrd on I will self delete.

[R B Garr]

37. You brought up Beto. We know whose campaign is

attacking Beto.

[BannonsLiver]

9. Sirota is a serial basher of all actual Dems.

He has slurred President Obama with lies as well. It’s not just Beto and Biden. It’s clear what kind of campaign Bernie wants to run in 2020.

[dalton99a]

18. And Michelle

Link to tweet

[ucrdem]

19. What a jerk.

[BannonsLiver]

24. ...

Lower than whale shit.

[R B Garr]

32. What a lying POS

[George II]

43. There's no Democrat good enough for him. Disgusting that he's a "top advisor"....

....to a "Democratic" campaign.

[dem4decades]

78. Makes me sick.

[Bleacher Creature]

10. Are you kidding me???

He shouldn't be allowed to run as a Democrat. This is over-the-top awful judgment.

[handmade34]

11. Bernie is trouble

...or should I say, Bernie supporters and campaign are trouble... It was a problem in 2016 and it will be a problem in 2019/2020

I say this as a Vermonter who knows Bernie and a lot of Bernie supporters... in another thread about Bernie I commented this sentiment and someone asked how many? (Bernie supporters was I talking about) and my answer is all of them that I know!

I have always supported Bernie as Mayor, Representative and Senator in Vermont... although, I adamantly believe and insist that as a Presidential candidate he is trouble and I would like his campaign to end!!

[R B Garr]

16. Thanks for sharing this about your first-hand knowledge.

[mcar]

13. So much for civility in the primary

[ucrdem]

17. He'll fit right in.

The rest I deleted.

[Gothmog]

21. Who is surprised by this?

Sirota has been acting as an attack dog for the sanders campaign for a long time. No one should be surprised by this just as no one should have taken Sirota' prior attack pieces. Sirota is a hack

[comradebillyboy]

22. So it looks like Bernie is going scorched earth right off the bat.

[LongtimeAZDem]

31. Yep; 2016 all over again

[WeekiWater]

23. His new National Press Secretary has been writing hit pieces on Harris and other Democrats...

for The Intercept.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/128730135

[Gothmog]

64. She also voted for stein

Link to tweet

[dalton99a]

69. +1

[Gothmog]

72. sanders new press secretary has been attacking Congressman John Lewis

Link to tweet

[LongtimeAZDem]

27. plonk

[BannonsLiver]

34. LOL

Welcome to DU.

[R B Garr]

39. Which Democrats are you looking forward to him lying about?

Oh, welcome to DU,

[George II]

67. To quote Sarah Palin, "all of them!"

[stonecutter357]

40. lol !

[dem4decades]

79. Well I guess you, Putin and Bernie think so. So there at least three people then.

[Sapient Donkey]

28. That's disappointing.

I have zero respect for the dirty tactics of this Sirota guy.

[comradebillyboy]

30. When you can't develop solutions, you bring in the attack dogs.

[Gothmog]

33. Sirota scrubbed his twitter feed but this remains

Link to tweet

[George II]

47. Someone posted a screen shot of his -20,288 posts this morning. See post #46 and here:

[KitSileya]

50. Fucking Sirota deleted 20,000 tweets

Many, many of them attacks on critics who pointed out how his slip was showing on his "I'm an impartial journalist"-shtick because he was posting blatant lies about Democrats Senator Sanders' supporters saw as threats. He directed his many followers to attack many prominent Democratic voices on twitter - especially women and people of color.

Senator Sanders is really showing what he thinks of the Democratic party when most of his staff have been far more interested in attacking the Dems than saying anything about the republicans and Trump - and hiring from the Intercept? He amply demonstrates that his votes against Russian sanctions (or weaseling out of voting against Russian oligarchs) were not a fluke - Senator Sanders' refusal to do anything about Russia is not a bug, it's a feature.

[dalton99a]

51. +1

[Gothmog]

62. Here is one of the deleted tweets

Link to tweet

[George II]

65. Sirota has me blocked. A top advisor to a Democratic candidate's campaign HAS ME BLOCKED!

[LuvLoogie]

38. Bernard Sanders is becoming Bernie the Shiv

Joins the party just to tear down Democrats on the national stage.

That's too bad. He was more effective as a happy warrior on Thom Hartmann's radio show. I miss that guy.

[stonecutter357]

41. WOW!

[melman]

42. Excellent choice

Sirota is great.

[George II]

44. So are you going to be forthcoming with those "death threats" you repeatedly posted about...

...last night?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=28596

[Cha]

59. uh huh.. sirota Deleted 20,288 Tweets today

What's he hiding?

[George II]

46. Follow up. I guess David Sirota is ashamed of his twitter history....

He deleted TWENTY THOUSAND of his tweets this morning!!! I wonder why?

[dalton99a]

48. There is so much to hide.

[R B Garr]

49. Wow! Someone knows his lies will be exposed!

That is an amazing number of deletions.

[George II]

52. tweet from Tom Watson:

Link to tweet

[R B Garr]

88. So glad to see such straight talk and so many

people on to Bernie. “face of the @Bernie Sanders campaign”. They know “right wing” attacks are no different than what this is about.

[Cha]

60. "20, 288"! Got to get those last 288

tweets Scrubbed!

[Renew Deal]

53. Looks like Sirota is now the sellout

[George II]

76. One of them. Don't forget the co-chair who openly talked about voting for Jill Stein.

[Me.]

55. Finally!....Transparency!

Bernie, we always knew ya.

[wasupaloopa]

56. Bernie goes around playing the "Saint Bernie of the Left" roll while he hires others to do

his dirty work.

He is the biggest hypocrite running for President.

I would really hate to have to put up with him in the White House.

[Still In Wisconsin]

57. I was an ARDENT supporter of Bernie in the last election cycle. Suffice to say...

this move only makes me even more sure I am not backing him this time around.

If Bernie chooses to be a bomb thrower (at Democrats) in the upcoming primary season I think he will find his support has thinned out even more than is already the case. Hate to say it but it looks like all the folks who said "for Bernie it's all about Bernie" were right. Mea culpa.

[Cha]

61. Mahalo, Still In Wisconsin!

[Still In Wisconsin]

70. Mahalo, Cha!

We'll beat them (the Trumpers) this time around!

[Cha]

63. Bernie Sanders Politely Asks Supporters Not to Harass His Opponents

https://www.democraticunderground.com/12875478

Brawawawaaaaaa!

[dalton99a]

73. He just wants to have criticisms removed

so be careful

[Cha]

74. Trying, dalton

[Cha]

66. Imagine being Sirota, being so uhinged you were fired from a Philly Mayor's race for having a friend

Link to tweet

One of Sirota's Deleted tweets.

[ComradeFunk]

68. Yep - I'm done with Bernie. He clearly cares more for ego than unity.

[Gothmog]

75. Sirota has been working for sanders for a while

Link to tweet

[trueblue2007]

77. Well this is so disturbing. I am disgusted with these tactics. DISGUSTED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sheshe2]

80. Dear goddess.

This is going to get ugly...or should I say even uglier than we have seen before. These hires are a huge mistake. Then again it is clear why they were hired.

[comradebillyboy]

86. Sirota is a perfect reflection of his boss. That's why Bernie hired him.

Bernie has had a long association with Sirota so there won't be any surprises for Bernie. But it very much signals exactly what kind of campaign Sanders has planned.

[betsuni]

87. When you can't run on policy differences.

All tomorrow's insults.

[Gothmog]

90. Washington Post-A Bernie Sanders supporter (and journalist) had a secret he kept from his readers

Link to tweet

A reporter’s undisclosed connection to a political candidate would constitute a breach of journalistic ethics. The basic rule is that journalists are supposed to be free of any personal or financial relationship with those they cover or comment on, even an “informal” relationship. Alternatively, reporters are obligated to at least disclose such relationships so that readers or viewers can evaluate the integrity of the reporting for themselves.

Sirota, 43, not only didn’t mention his relationship with Sanders’s campaign but apparently sought to erase his long history of attacks against Sanders’s opponents, according to the Atlantic. Just hours before his hiring by Sanders was announced, Sirota deleted about 20,000 or so of his tweets. He suggested that the timing of the mass deletion was coincidental, telling the Atlantic that his account was scrubbed by an “autodeleter” that periodically and automatically removes his posts.

It remains unclear how long Sirota advised the Sanders camp before his hiring. Neither Sirota nor Sanders’s representatives responded to multiple requests for comment on Wednesday.

Sirota’s vitriolic tweets and blog posts also appear to be at odds with the ethos of the Sanders’s campaign, which has stressed that it will “respectfully engage” other Democratic candidates. His hiring as a speechwriter also appears to be an acknowledgment that Sanders, whose extemporaneous public remarks have been a sign of his authenticity, will at times be scripted like other politicians.

[Cha]

91. OT.. Kinda.. but check this poll

.. I know early.

Maybe BS is not confident of his message so he hires 3rd party "attack dogs".

Sanders Promised Civility but Hired Twitter Attack Dog - The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/sanders-promised-civility-hired-twitter-attack-dog/585259/

Link to tweet

SMH.

[Cha]

92. KICK!

[Gothmog]

93. Some history

Link to tweet