The Atlantic: Bernie Sanders Just Hired His Twitter Attack Dog

[TwilightZone]

"Shortly before he gave speeches launching his 2020 campaign earlier this month, Bernie Sanders emailed his supporters, urging them to “do our very best to engage respectfully with our Democratic opponents—talking about the issues we are fighting for, not about personalities or past grievances. I want to be clear that I condemn bullying and harassment of any kind and in any space.”

What he didn’t include was that one of the people already advising him and helping him write those launch speeches is one of his most famously aggressive supporters online.

Since December, David Sirota has, on Twitter, on his own website, and in columns in The Guardian, been trashing most of Sanders’s Democratic opponents—all without disclosing his work with Sanders—and has been pushing back on critics by saying that he was criticizing the other Democrats as a journalist. He centered many of his attacks on Beto O’Rourke, but he also bashed Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Mike Bloomberg, and even Andrew Cuomo."

More...

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

[roody]

1. I've never used Twitter.

Did this man actually bash other candidates, or did he point out their voting records and histories while holding public office?

[we can do it]

3. If you read link you would see it's divisive bashing.

Not surprising.

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

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. Maybe he was hacked and the FBI looking in to it?

Works for me.

[Cha]

63. Sirota is a Sneaky 20,288 Tweets Deleter.

Link to tweet

Screenshots taken before the mass Twitter deletion preserve the role that Sirota was playing to his 125,000 followers, trying to turn the early online conversation about the 2020 primary race against other candidates, all while unofficially advising Sanders.

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

A couple of tweets, Sirota Deleted..

David Sirota on Twitter: "It's interesting that the Dem establishment ...

Link to tweet

?lang=en
David Sirota on Twitter: "If you are going to blame Trump's election ...

Link to tweet

Wonder what they said?.. lol

[emulatorloo]

15. He lied about one candidates funding sources. Outright lies

He lied about individual donations and pretended they were corporate donations.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/inside-bernie-world-s-war-beto-o-rourke-n951016

“It started with David Sirota, a liberal activist and journalist who worked for Sanders many years ago. In a long tweetstorm, Sirota noted that O'Rourke had received more donations from the oil and gas industry than any candidate in the 2018 cycle other than Cruz.

Something I didn’t know: Beto O’Rourke is the #2 recipient of oil/gas industry campaign cash in the entire Congress https://t.co/i5z3zHR03u pic.twitter.com/YYLJpg4uFG

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) December 2, 2018

The missing context: O'Rourke didn't take money from corporate political action committees, and the donations attributed to the oil and gas business include both a handful from executives and many others from lower-level employees of his home state's flagship industry. Altogether, they still account for a little more than half of one percent of all of the money he raised for the election.”

———————

He lied. I wouldn’t trust Sirota’s word even if his tongue came notarized.

[dogman]

30. Searched and couldn't find a lie, but I did find this.

"I also found that O’Rourke broke the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge—a commitment to reject campaign donations over $200 from fossil fuel PACs and executives that was endorsed by 16 environmental groups—which he signed."

https://readsludge.com/2018/12/10/beto-orourke-oil-and-gas-contributions-2018/

Probably wasn't notarized either.

[TwilightZone]

54. The lie was right there in the post.

Sirota claimed that they were corporate donations. They were personal donations.

He either has zero understanding of how donations work (the chances of which are zero) or he lied.

[dogman]

64. No, you wrote corporate.

He didn't.

[KitSileya]

66. Saying he got donations from the oil and gas INDUSTRY

When Sirota knows full well the donations are from people who work IN the industry (that includes janitors, clerks, and other ordinary people who happen to work in one of the biggest sectors in O'Rourke's state), is a lie. Should people be forbidden from donating to their chosen candidate based on their employer? If you're a bank teller working for Well's Fargo, you shouldn't be allowed to donate to Senator Sanders, because he'll be getting donations from big banks if you do? If you work as a truck driver in a warehouse for Pfizer, you shouldn't be allowed to donate to Senator Booker because he'll be getting donations from Big Pharma if you do? And your donations can be used to attack your chosen candidate by hacks like Sirota if you do?

It's undemocratic, is what its. And lies.

[TwilightZone]

69. Semantic nonsense.

Sirota knew he was full of shit. His post was intentionally misleading and patently false. Either that, or he's an idiot. Take your pick.

Defend him all you want. His motivations are clear and he's a political hack who helped Trump get elected in 2016.

He is doing Sanders - and Democrats - no favors.

[emulatorloo]

73. +1

I am really not a fan of intellectual dishonesty. I may have to sit DU Primary 2020 out. We are a about a year away from Iowa. I really don’t want to deal with this disingenuous shit and outright lying for that long. I was a Sanders supporter in 2016. Not anymore. Poor judgement and the Sirota hire just comfirms it

[RandySF]

26. He beat the shit out of Obama daily in 2008 AFTER he became the nominee.

[Gothmog]

27. yes

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[rurallib]

2. That's what this primary needs - Dems bashing Dems

[we can do it]

4. Or NottaDem bashing actual democrats.

[rurallib]

5. Who or what is NottaDem?

if that is a poster here that you don't like put them on ignore.
I do not wish to be dragged into the middle of somebody else's fight.

[NurseJackie]

9. Think about it.

There ya go... now ya got it! (It took me a second too.)

[we can do it]

17. 😂

[cwydro]

23. Boom.

+1000

[Honeycombe8]

32. Boom boom. nt

[lapucelle]

36. That's a great reason not to hire David Sirota as your speech writer, a Jill Stein supporter

as your national press secretary, and a campaign manager who told anybody with a microphone that she did not support the Democratic nominee during the 2016 general election campaign.

Many see such decisions as a matter of judgement, character, and leadership.

[Cha]

7. I just started reading that.. Gracias for posting,

TwilightZone!

None of those comments can be found online anymore. On Monday night, after being contacted for a second time by The Atlantic with a list of specific questions about his undisclosed work for Sanders, Sirota did not respond to the email but deleted more than 20,000 tweets. He left fewer than 200 online.

[SFnomad]

18. Sirota forgot the first rule of the interwebs ... it NEVER forgets !!!! n/t

[NurseJackie]

8. Have you seen Sirota's "ELECTION EVE" twitter smears on Hillary? ELECTION EVE!!!

We're talking WAY past the primary and WAY past the convention... and Sirota 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

[JI7]

11. that's why he was hired

[NurseJackie]

14. The goal is to destroy the Democratic party?

I know that's the philosophy of "Justice Democrats" and "Our Revolution". They despise the Democratic party and want to "destroy it" to "rebuild it". I'm a loyal Democrat, I support the party (warts and all) and those groups and everyone associated with them are beneath contempt. You don't burn down your house because there's a leaky faucet or a squeaky floorboard. That's what these people want to do... no matter who it hurts.

that's why he was hired

Someone who worked to get Trump elected was hired by Bernie. That really says a lot, if you think about it.

[Blue_true]

48. Yes, but not make things look that way.

Someone posted that Sirota was in full bore attack mode on Hillary on November 7, 2016. That Bernie would hire someone like that says that Bernie either is not paying attention, or he is complicit with that type of conduct. Make your own choice as to which you believe. The fact that Bernie hired him seems to confirm a lot of reservations about Bernie that people have been voicing since the 2016 General.

[Agschmid]

12. Did he actually delete these tweets?

[we can do it]

19. They just disappeared.

[Cha]

84. Pooooof!

[Cha]

83. ..

[Agschmid]

87. Well that sure is odd.

[we can do it]

20. Like BS and Jill Stein.

[JI7]

33. that's been clear for a long time now

[R B Garr]

34. Exactly. nt

[NurseJackie]

46. That's exactly it. The objective of Sirota, Justice Dems, Our Rev, Stein, Turner, Sarandon...

That's exactly it. The objective of Sirota, Justice Democratss, Our Revolution, Jill Stein, Nina Turner, Susan Sarandon, Cenk Uygur, Cornell West, Nader-voting Michael Moore and anyone associated with them is to sabotage then "destroy-and-rebuild" the Democratic party.

We can see exactly where Sirota's moral compass is pointed. What does it say about anyone who would hire him for ANY job? Where is their moral compass?

[we can do it]

21. This deserves its own thread.

[dalton99a]

38. +1

[cwydro]

24. Yep.

Exactly this.

[dalton99a]

58. Enlargement of above image for members without Twitter or magnifying glass:

[NurseJackie]

60. Sabotage and revenge. Disgusting.

Thanks for the enlargements.

[oasis]

71. If in 2016, Hillary goes down, "someone" has a 2nd bite at the apple

in 2020. Disgusting AND infuriating, to say the least.

[BooScout]

59. Why does this not surprise me?

This is telling.

[emulatorloo]

10. Sanders campaign manager confirms Sirota has been working 'unofficially' for months, as 'trial run'

Getting quote

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

Sirota’s hiring as a senior adviser and speechwriter was announced by the Sanders campaign on Tuesday morning after The Atlantic contacted the campaign and inquired about the undisclosed role Sirota held while attacking other Democrats.

Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s campaign manager, confirmed in an interview on Tuesday afternoon that Sirota had been in an advisory role prior to his hiring on March 11. “He was advising beforehand,” Shakir said, explaining that Sirota’s informal work for Sanders goes back months, and was meant to be a trial period to see how the senator, who famously likes to write every word that he says himself, would work with a speechwriter.

[Cha]

22. So Sirota's "attack dog" audtion went

well.

Jesus! He and his gang better Not 'cause the Fascists to stay in power.

[Cha]

81. I'm furious, too!

How are these 3rd party hires gonna reconcile working for the Democratic candidate to beat the fascistrump if BS doesn't win the primary, or will they just revert to form if they hadn't already?

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

emulatorloo

[Cha]

86. Sounds to me like

they're just talking about it. They can't be serious with the recent 3rd party hires.

I think our Democratic base is too brilliant for that.

[Blue_true]

49. That is trully underhanded, the guy posed as a journalist while essentially working for

one campaign. How can that be a good sign?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. They

They have declared war on all of us. To paraphrase Churchill we can fight them when we are strong and they are weak or we can wait to fight them when they are strong and we are weak and we have no chance.

[emulatorloo]

79. +1

[Gothmog]

28. Sirota was working for sanders when he did Beto hit piece

Link to tweet

[betsuni]

29. Sirota is doing Republicans' homework for them.

The lies about the next Democratic nominee will be all ready for them to use.

[mucifer]

31. David Sirota was on Al Franken's radio show every week. He even had a cute little

theme song "my Sirota!" Franken had theme songs for most of his regular guests.

Just giving some history.

[mcar]

35. So the Senator lied?

THis makes me very angry.

[Blue_true]

50. It seems that sleight of hand is no issue with that campaign.

Absolutely astounding that a person can be working with a campaign and still be allowed to act like he is a journalist. Will Bernie say that he was unaware like he did with the sexual violence, harrassment and unfair pay to female staffers that took place in 2016.

[mcar]

53. Good questions

[Blue_true]

56. If by chance Bernie was unaware of Sirota's actions.

Then he should immediately fire every staffer that was aware of what Sirota was doing.

[Maru Kitteh]

37. So many Jill Stein voters in top positions in his campaign,

Turner
Sirota
Gray

One is too many, this is getting to be quite a collection.

[dalton99a]

40. Because Greens always help elect Democrats

Last edited Tue Mar 19, 2019, 11:35 PM - Edit history (1)

I hope they can work out a merger where Jill Stein can join the Revolution

[Thekaspervote]

68. Ugh?? Greens pull votes from dems and hurt a lot of our candidates

[melman]

39. Guardian editor

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[TwilightZone]

41. "Once David was approached by Sanders he wrote nothing else for us."

Officially or unofficially?

Did Sirota tell them right away?

This doesn't really prove anything one way or the other. We know Sirota is lying. There's little reason to believe he wouldn't have lied to them as well.

[dalton99a]

42. It is meaningless. The record is clear on his persistent attacks against Democrats

Nothing but lies and ammunition for Republicans to use against Democrats

[melman]

44. Why didn't Dovere contact them and ask?

Seems like that would be the thing to do.

[TwilightZone]

45. Because the timeline is clear.

He was clearly writing hit pieces on the other candidates while he was "unofficially" working for Sanders. If any of the articles that Sirota wrote for the Guardian were within the time frame that Sanders' staff acknowledges Sirota was working for them, there would be no reason to contact the Guardian to confirm. All one would need is a little deductive reasoning.

"Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s campaign manager, confirmed in an interview on Tuesday afternoon that Sirota had been in an advisory role prior to his hiring on March 11. “He was advising beforehand,” Shakir said, explaining that Sirota’s informal work for Sanders goes back months, and was meant to be a trial period to see how the senator, who famously likes to write every word that he says himself, would work with a speechwriter."

Also, from the article:

"He then turned those into an op-ed on December 20 in The Guardian, writing that “a new analysis of congressional votes from the non-profit news organisation Capital & Main shows that even as O’Rourke represented one of the most solidly Democratic congressional districts in the United States, he has frequently voted against the majority of House Democrats in support of Republican bills and Trump administration priorities.”

[melman]

62. I disagree

Devore had an angle and he didn't care about getting the facts.

[TwilightZone]

70. Well, of course you do.

[melman]

72. Yeah

Because it's obvious this hack Dovere set out to write a hit piece.



Why else would he deliberately block out the date on this tweet?

Link to tweet

[lapucelle]

43. As per The Atlantic's Edward-Isaac Dovere

None of [Sirota's twitter] comments can be found online anymore. On Monday night, after being contacted for a second time by The Atlantic with a list of specific questions about his undisclosed work for Sanders, Sirota did not respond to the email but deleted more than 20,000 tweets. He left fewer than 200 online.

On Tuesday morning, minutes after his position was announced by the Sanders campaign in a long list of new hires, Sirota said he hadn’t been able to respond to my initial inquiries because he’d been caring for his sick child. He did post a photo on Twitter of himself bowling on Monday evening, wearing a turkey hat.

Link to tweet

[NurseJackie]

47. Hey, Sirota... scurry into the darkness you little cockroach! Hide hide hide, but it won't...

Hey, Sirota... scurry into the darkness you little cockroach! Hide hide hide, delete delete delete, but it won't change reality.

Where did he hide those tweets? In the same shoebox with the TAX RETURNS?

[namahage]

51. I'm sure we'll find out "SOON"! n/t

[Blue_true]

52. Time to crank up the Wayback Machine. nt

[Blue_true]

57. Wow. The guy is stuffing his campaign with people that dislike democrats.

What should that tell us? I just can't trust people like that. I will swallow hard and support Bernie 1 million percent if he wins our party nomination and certainly will vote for him in the General, but I am hoping that someone else wins our party's nomination, someone that is proud to be a democrat and proud of our core values.

[Blue_true]

88. Looks like poor judgement. Time will tell. nt

[dalton99a]

61. For members without Twitter:

[dalton99a]

65. .

Last edited Thu Mar 21, 2019, 12:58 AM - Edit history (1)

[emulatorloo]

76. K&R this post

[Cha]

82. This is @BernieSanders Press Secretary telling me that I personally (along with all other Black peo

Link to tweet

Mahalo, Dalton! Good on USA!

[Cha]

89. Timely reminder..