MSNBC’s Brian Williams tried this week to capture the mood of Democrats opposed to Sen. Bernie Sanders by quoting, of all things, an anonymous #Resistance Twitter troll.
The moment came as Williams and his guests discussed the Vermont senator’s recent criticisms of the Washington Post and its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who purchased the newspaper in 2013 for $250 million.
Sanders asked Monday evening during a campaign event in New Hampshire, “Anybody here know how much Amazon paid in taxes last year?”
“Nothing!” his audience shouted.
“See, I talk about that all of the time and then I wonder why the Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, doesn’t write particularly good articles about me,” the senator said. “I don’t know why. But I guess maybe there is a connection. Maybe we helped raise the minimum wage at Amazon to $15 an hour as well.”
Later, on Tuesday, Sanders clarified his meaning.
“I think my criticism of the corporate media is not that they are anti-Bernie, that they wake up, you know, in the morning and say, ‘What could we do to hurt Bernie Sanders?’ — that’s not the case, that Jeff Bezos gets on the phone to the Washington Post,” he said in an interview with CNN.
He added, “There is a framework of what we can discuss and what we cannot discuss, and that’s a serious problem.”
That same evening, Williams teed up a segment about the Sanders/Amazon spat, claiming some Democrats are upset with the senator especially now that he has adopted Trump-like talking points. For evidence, Williams turned to an anonymous Twitter troll called The Hoarse Whisperer, explaining it was the “tweet from last night that caught my attention.”
The stupid tweet reads: “Okay, since this is trending, here’s #MyBernieStory. The year was 2016 and Bernie was already long eliminated from contention. An actual Democrat would have stopped torpedoing the nominee and worked to defeat Trump but Bernie had books to sell. The end.”
Okay, since this is trending, here’s #MyBernieStory.
The year was 2016 and Bernie was already long eliminated from contention.
An actual Democrat would have stopped torpedoing the nominee and worked to defeat Trump but Bernie had books to sell.
The end.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) August 12, 2019
“That kind of nicely sums up how some Democrats feel about Bernie when they hear him using a Trump talking point,” said Williams.
What in the world?
First, that tweet is a slander of Sanders. He campaigned vigorously for failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, even after it was alleged Democratic National Committee officials had tipped the primary in her favor.
Second, the stupid tweet cited by Williams is not even about the Sanders vs. Amazon fight. It represents an attempt by a Twitter troll to disrupt a Sanders-inspired hashtag. The Hoarse Whisperer tweet cited by Williams was published on Aug. 12, at 11:31 a.m. EST. Sanders’ remarks on Amazon that same day did not come until five hours later, about 5 p.m. in the evening.
So, what was that again about Sanders adopting Trump talking points?
Lastly, is this really the best example of a Democratic Sanders critic Williams could find? Was literally every other human on the planet unavailable for comment?
Just to recap: Brian Williams cited an anonymous troll who accused Sanders falsely of “torpedoing” Clinton to claim some Democrats are upset with the senator’s Trump-like talking points. And the anchor cited a stupid #Resistance tweet unconnected to the larger issue of Sanders’ criticisms of the Washington Post.
Solid work all around, my man.
