The Disinformation Campaign Being Launched Against Biden

[highplainsdem]

Washington Monthly article, which I found thanks to a tweet from Politico's Ryan Lizza, who said he "didn’t realize this was a whole coordinated thing but this piece lays it out."

His tweet:

Link to tweet

The Washington Monthly article:

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/06/the-disinformation-campaign-being-launched-against-biden/

During a town hall on Fox News Thursday night, Trump once again alluded to the idea that Biden is unfit for office. While the lies about the Bidens and Burisma will likely continue, the Daily Caller reports that this new line of attack will be a focus for Republicans and the Trump campaign.

This issue, however, is not simply being raised by Trump and his enablers. Steve Friess reports that a memo about Biden’s “cognitive decline” is circulating among Sanders’ supporters.

The Bernie Sanders presidential campaign is disavowing a list of post-Super Tuesday talking points distributed to supporters and surrogates on Wednesday morning that suggest Sanders partisans attack a resurgent Joe Biden on his “record and obvious cognitive decline.”

-snip-

All of this feels very familiar. During the 2016 election, both Trump and the Sanders camp attempted to paint Hillary Clinton as corrupt. Now, both sides have teamed up on an attack against Biden.

The article -- which quotes some of the vicious messages being tweeted -- goes on to quote doctors and other experts explaining why Biden ISN'T showing signs of cognitive decline.

And it ends by saying that as we're subjected to this massive and "particularly pernicious" disinformation campaign, "for those of us who are fact-based, it is important to keep in mind that there is no data to support the allegations that are being made."

[Dopers_Greed]

1. Sanders' camp is following the Putin/Trump playbook

[Cha]

2. Retweeted! The good news is.. Biden Voters

are smarter than to get sucked in by Desperation.

Yeah we saw it.. thank you, hpd:candle;

[vercetti2021]

3. Dirtbag Bros

Call them for what they are. Not true Democrats. BernDirtBags.

[George II]

4. I can't believe this line of attack has exploded just in the last 12 hours against Biden...

...it's disgusting.

[Cha]

6. They mad.. about

SUPER SPECTACULAR TUESDAY! What else they gonna do?

[George II]

8. Who knows how the attacks will be after a more SUPER SPECTACULAR TUESDAY II...

It looks like Biden will win the four biggest states on Tuesday, and quite possibly all six states.

[Cha]

12. We Need Mike's Counter Campaign Ad $$$$$ & We Need

it NOW!

[Cha]

13. PS.. Biden's % just went up to 32%..

[highplainsdem]

9. About the last 24 hours. Last night when I was checking Twitter for tweets

about Biden, as soon as I'd type in his name, I'd get search options

biden dementia

biden senile


And yes, it was disgusting.

The first of those is still showing up as a top search option on Twitter, though tonight

biden rally

is also there.

[TwilightZone]

17. Fox News and the Trump War Room twitter account are becoming popular sources.

I've seen both here in the past few hours. "cognitive decline" is a common claim.

Of course, others insist that they're not Sanders supporters, even the ones who've been here 10+ years.

[Cha]

5. Calling on Mike to do his Thing!

[SaschaHM]

7. I'm beyond disgusted with this smear and I hope it doesn't get propped up here.

Be ready to report it if you see it.

[PatSeg]

10. I've already had numerous people

on Facebook say this. They were all people who claim to be Bernie Sanders supporters. Comparisons were made to Ronald Reagan.

[hay rick]

15. If I make an obvious false claim about Biden, do you trust me when I say I'm a Bernie supporter?

[PatSeg]

16. Quite a few came across as suspicious

but there are some that seem to be genuine Bernie supporters or they're really good trolls.

[grantcart]

20. Numerous long term Sanders on DU are posting these bogus character attacks

[Thekaspervote]

11. I guess Biden half joked about how the campaign was going to get ugly/bloody

Said something to the effect that if some were going to throw an iron skillet at him, bernie and as Biden now calls them the bernie brothers are probably going to throw the dishwasher at him. Joe.. still able to find the humor in this pressure cooker he’s in!

An individual in cognitive decline may seem humorless they aren’t, they just can’t think on their feet.

[Cha]

14. He knew... thanks for that reminder, Kasper

[Hav]

18. BS and his followers synchronizing their attacks with Trump

and the bots. I've heard that story before.

[SunSeeker]

19. Yep. We all have. Hopefully we won't fall for it again. nt

[Scurrilous]

21. Look who is joining in:

Link to tweet

[B Stieg]

22. I think "going negative" will backfire because...

this race is--in part--about a return to decency and truth.
I'll take a few stumbles just to get that back.
Affective politics matter.