Reach back with me to 2007, when Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan had to resign from John Edwards' campaign after Republicans combed her blog and decided they had written terrible things about Catholics. It was a scandal.
In venues ranging from the New York Times to the major cable news networks,Donohue demanded that the Edwards campaign fire McEwan and me. The left blogosphere, furious that a smear artist might try to snap his fingers and bully a Democratic campaign into firing a staffer, pushed back hard. Liza at Culture Kitchencollected just a sampling of the hundreds of blog posts and letters that were protesting the very idea that such a manufactured controversy should have any impact on the staffing of presidential campaigns.
It's 2016 now, and today's AP story about Donald Trump's paid staffers' social media accounts is predictable, but apparently IOKIYAR, particularly if you work for Donald Trump. Keep in mind, this report follows on the heels of his efforts to "reach out" to the African-American and Latino communities. Reporter Jeff Horwitz appeared on MSNBC to flesh out his story, but here are some highlights.
A graphic designer for Trump's advance team approvingly posted video of a black man eating fried chicken and criticizing fellow blacks for ignorance, irresponsibility and having too many children. A Trump field organizer in Virginia declared that Muslims were seeking to impose Sharia law in America and that "those who understand Islam for what it is are gearing up for the fight."
You've gotta love the Florida "director of coalitions" posting this kind of crap:
Before being tapped as statewide director of coalitions, Craig Bachler of Bradenton, Florida, posted jokes in 2015 about Mexican accents superimposed over pictures of an overweight man wearing a sombrero. Bachler was named by the campaign as official staff in November, though there is no record he has been paid for his work. Bachler did not respond to a request for comment via Facebook or a message left at his office voicemail. After AP's inquiries, Bachler blocked access to an AP reporter, and his Facebook account — which included a photo of Bachler with Trump — was scrubbed to remove the offensive post.
And over in South Carolina, we have this staffer feeding the racist content beast:
Teresa Unrue, a field organizer and graphic designer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for Trump's advance team, shared a video on her Facebook account July 11 — the week before the Republican National Convention — of a black man eating fried chicken while shaming fellow black people.
"Why are you mad about slavery?" the man asks. "Y'all weren't no damn slaves."
"Had me crack'n up!! Thank you!" Unrue wrote of the video. "Please share this with people."
There's much, much more to read here.
In the interest of "both sides do it," Mr. Horwitz also looked at Clinton staffers' social media, but concluded that both sides really do not do it at all. He couldn't find any controversial postings from the Clinton camp at all.
For me, this is just more evidence that Trump talks a big game but doesn't actually do the work. When he talks about having "extreme vetting" of immigrants, you need only look to the non-vetting he does of his white staffers to understand that he's just blowing smoke.
We know they're racist. We know Trump is running a white supremacist campaign. But we also understand that basic vetting is something that must be done in order to run a government. Clearly he's clueless on that front.
First a 12-year old kid running his operation in Colorado, now this? How can anyone in this country thinks the man is qualified to know the nuclear codes? What is the matter with people?
