Zoom call videos from the 2020 election cycle reveal how Biden-Harris campaign staff manipulated “disinformation” to hide then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden's cognitive decline from voters.
Rob Flaherty, former digital director for the Biden-Harris campaign and now deputy campaign manager for presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, revealed that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has created a program to detect, track and have social media platforms flag “misinformation narratives,” including “online conversations” about Biden's “mental health,” according to a video obtained by journalists. Matt OrferaThe videos show Zoom calls Flaherty made. Hope, not hateis a UK-based activist group whose mission is to combat “far-right extremism.” The Zoom call took place on November 18, 2020. according to Screenshot of HOPE not hate's Twitter post.
Rob Flaherty, digital director for the Biden-Harris Party, said the DNC has created a program to detect, track and censor what it considers to be “misinformation” — such as Biden having a mental breakdown. He called it “significant” and “one of the most important decisions” by the party in recent years. pic.twitter.com/pbIqUnY8ib
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
But on the Zoom call, Flaherty said the “misinformation narrative” included “online conversations about corruption or mental health…or [Biden’s] “Record on Crime Bill” – Biden's team defines “misinformation” as anything they find inconvenient. pic.twitter.com/HMKJfokeHG
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
Flaherty called the program “one of the smartest things the Democratic Party has ever put together,” and was joined on the call by Timothy Durigan. news release He said he was announced in “recent months” as the lead analyst for the DNC's counter-disinformation program starting in May 2021. At the time, he was President Biden's emergency response director. Rebecca RinkevichHe later became deputy director of White House digital strategy in the Biden administration and also participated in the call.
Rinkevich Said There has been a lot of “misinformation” about Biden's “mental abilities.” explanation People who post related to topics deemed “misinformation” will be targeted in real time based on “online behavioral cues,” building personas based on the type of content they're consuming, what they're searching for, and [and] The types of websites visited
Becca Rinkevich, Biden's emergency director (and later deputy director of digital strategy at the White House), also classified the rumors about Biden's mental breakdown as “fake news,” or “fake news about his mental health.” pic.twitter.com/GZMJclMYNs
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
Rinkevich: “We target people based on their online behavioral cues, building personas based on the type of content they're consuming, what they're searching for, the types of websites they're visiting, allowing us to target people in real time as they're exposed to it… pic.twitter.com/M92g62zQW3
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
Durigan headed the program, and his reports “literally reached the highest levels” of the Biden campaign. according to The plan, Flaherty told me, is still included in the official Democratic National Committee reports. WebsiteDurigan has served on the Democratic National Committee for six years, he said. LinkedIn Page. He previously worked for several months as a data visualization analyst for former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's 2016 election campaign.
Joining Flaherty & Rinkevich via Zoom was Tim Durigan, the creator and lead analyst of the Democratic National Committee's counter-disinformation program. Flaherty said his report ” [Biden] Campaign”. /12 pic.twitter.com/GK0slllW8i
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
Rinkevich attributes at least 200,000 votes Biden received in 2020 to the program. The Democratic president won Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by fewer votes than his total. according to The data was collected by NPR from state officials, and Orfalea appears to have taken a screenshot of NPR's graph.
“In particular, concerns about risks and hits to mental acuity fell by eight percentage points over the course of the election,” Rinkevich said.
But the Biden campaign not only let the media spread false information, but also changed the actual vote count. [Biden’s] “In particular, mental acuity dropped by eight points over the course of the election,” he said, adding that “roughly 200,000” votes were cast for Biden. pic.twitter.com/Siqtdoo3y4
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
To put things into perspective, Biden won Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by fewer than 200,000 votes combined. pic.twitter.com/jW2ULDbePw
— Matt Orfera (@0rf) August 7, 2024
Biden announced on July 21 that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race after weeks of campaigning led by Democratic Party officials following a poor performance in the June 27 debate and concerns about his cognitive abilities. This came after the White House revealed that Biden was frozen The ones that showed up during Juneteenth celebrations and loitered around at the G7 summit were “cheap fakes.” (RELATED: 'Very Concerned': Trump Recalls 'Only' Interaction with Kamala, VP Candidate, on Fox & Friends)
On July 20, 2021, Durigan New Democrat Network (NDN) Zoom Interview Big tech companies “really have control over what content gets pushed on social media platforms,” NDN noted. In its article about the interview at the time, NDN wrote that Durigan “runs the Democratic National Committee's counter-misinformation program.”
“There's a reason the far right dominates Facebook — it's because the system is designed to capture people's attention and keep them feeling fearful and angry. That content rises to the top and publishers want to create more of that content and more propaganda,” Durigan said, as a Biden-Harris poster could be seen on the wall behind him.
Concerns about the censorship of conservative political content under the guise of “misinformation” or “disinformation” came to a head in October 2020. In particular, New York Post The story about Hunter Biden's laptop was shared on social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, and was later accepted as accurate reporting.
Former President Donald Trump BannedFollowing the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the post went viral for periods or permanently on many social media platforms, including Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
