Yesterday the Sanders campaign had to fire a newly-hired video creator. Today it's Warren's turn

[highplainsdem]

for personnel problems, since some old tweets from one of her campaign surrogates came to light:


https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/elizabeth-warren-under-fire-as-campaign-surrogates-racist-homophobic-tweets-come-to-light/

Elizabeth Warren Under Fire as Campaign Surrogate’s Racist, Homophobic Tweets Come to Light


Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is being heavily criticized for failing to vet a high-profile campaign surrogate with a history of making homophobic, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic comments on social media.

Activist Ashlee Marie Preston was featured in a Warren campaign video released October 10. In that video, Preston explains that she’s “a Warren Democrat because I am not afraid of the fight.”

The video released by Twitter account @TeamWarren is captioned:

🙌@AshleeMPreston is a #WarrenDemocrat, and so are we. Together, we’re fighting so that all women of color have a voice in our democracy.

But the memory of Twitter is long and unforgiving.

Users eventually noticed several racist and otherwise controversial posts made by Preston over the years.

-snip-

The article links to the campaign video.

I'm not going to quote the tweets here, but you can find quite a few of them at the link. They're racist (especially anti-Asian but also anti-Latino), homophobic, and anti-choice. And the language is crude even by Twitter standards.



_____


Edting to link to one of a few threads posted yesterday about the quickly-fired new hire in the Sanders campaign, since my subject line mentions that problem:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287307776

[TidalWave46]

1. There is a major difference.

Warren doesn't have a history of doing this, and then hiring them at top staff positions.

[Eric J in MN]

33. Bernie Sanders' history on gay rights

Writing in 1972 that we should end all laws against gay relationships.

As mayor of Burlington, VT in the 1980s, supporting a gay pride parade and laws against discrimination.

As a Congressman in the 1990s, voting against DOMA & DADT.

[George II]

62. And yet he hired (and then fired) a communications guy who freely used homophobic language.

[Eric J in MN]

64. The guy resigned the same day the guy announced he was hired. NT

NT

[George II]

66. Not according to Faiz Shakir.

Link to tweet

[TidalWave46]

65. Delection as a response to an accurate statement.

This is much closer to the bigot that Sanders recently hired.

[kcr]

2. Warren had to fire a campaign hire?

After denying there was an issue, and then finally giving in? Huh. I don't see that anywhere

[highplainsdem]

3. Try reading more carefully. I said it's "Warren's turn for personnel problems."

[kcr]

5. Yes. So, where is it?

You linked to Bernie tweeters still upset over the firing yesterday digging up some old tweets of someone not on her campaign.

[George II]

4. Good that she's doing this quickly...

and not waiting until three years after the fact!

[highplainsdem]

13. As far as I know, there's been no response from the Warren campaign yet as those old tweets

get more and more attention.

[Celerity]

6. she is trans, so the homophobia is really stupid, I had seen she accused LGBTQ Bernie supporters

of having Stockholm Syndrome

[Otto Lidenbrock]

7. I often think the reason Biden is holding up despite six months of doomsday predictions is...

His staff and surrogates aren't working on social media credit.

The only reason this Warren staffer has been outed is they must have posted some things on twitter to piss off fans of rival candidates. Why else does things from years ago get brought back up?

[kcr]

9. OP is a lie. The tweets aren't by a staffer.

[highplainsdem]

10. I didn't say she was a staffer. The article describes her as a paid campaign surrogate.

[kcr]

11. The article sources a tweet, where they talk about her appearance on TYT

where she says she's a surrogate. In other words, the author of the article at Law & Crime is confused.

[TwilightZone]

54. The word "surrogates" is in the very first sentence of the OP

I don't see where the OP ever referred to the person as a staffer. In fact, quite the opposite. It's right there in the first sentence.

[kcr]

55. "Today, it's Warren's turn for personnel problems"

When the Bernie campaign had to fire an actual staffer. No, it wasn't her turn because she doesn't have to fire a staffer. It isn't "Personnel problems." The OP doesn't understand the word(s) surrogate, staffer and/or personnel.

[lapucelle]

8. Ashlee Marie Preston endorsed E Warren. She is neither a campaign surrogate nor a hire.

For context:

'We Bring It on Ourselves': The Myths Silencing LGBTQ Sexual Assault Victims

Trans activist Ashlee Marie Preston points out that Weinstein's accusers, who are cisgender and white, "are a bit more protected by respectability politics than trans women of color." Trans victims, by contrast, aren't afforded the same level of sympathy. "Because of the continuous hyper-sexualization of trans identities in media, people believe that we 'bring it on ourselves' or that we 'desire' it more," she told me.

For a long time, she blamed herself for her own sexual abuse. After all, she reasoned, she'd been on drugs when she'd been assaulted. "I wondered if perhaps I would've made better decisions had my judgement not been as impaired," she explained. "However, the drugs were a social lubricant that numbed my conscious to the demoralizing things that were done to me out of survival. It all went hand in hand."

*******************************************************************************************

Link to tweet

********************************************************************************************

[highplainsdem]

12. She fits the typical definitions of a campaign surrgate. And that's how I've seen her described on

Twitter.

[lapucelle]

15. Surrogates appear in place of and officially represent candidates at events and in media...

...like @DrDooleyMD



******************************************************************************************

Link to tweet

*******************************************************************************************

[kcr]

16. Yep. I was thinking

Do they even know the hand they're playing with in that game?

[highplainsdem]

14. And Preston described herself as a Warren campaign surrogate on The Young Turks.

See the video with this tweet:

Link to tweet

[lapucelle]

19. Oh dear... apparently Ashlee Marie is a self-described surrogate! What's most troubling

about the tweet posted, however, is the source.

[highplainsdem]

21. I posted the tweet for the video.

[lapucelle]

22. There's lots of "interesting" stuff on his feed.

I wasn't aware that the aptly named Residue existed until the tweet was posted here.



*********************************************************************************************



*********************************************************************************************

[highplainsdem]

23. I don't care about his feed. The video showed Preston stating that she's a surrogate.

If the Warren campaign disagrees with that description, they should say so.

[lapucelle]

24. Why would E Warren respond to The Residue's conspiracy theories and whataboutism?

Link to tweet

[highplainsdem]

25. Not the tweet -- the article at that news site.

[lapucelle]

31. The article at the "news site" links to nothing but tweets

from folks with names like "DSA Swarthykin Caucus" and "Cursed Dem'-o-'Ween" to document the purported outrage.

According to the article, it's Brooke Hines who documented Ashlee's Preston's "problematic tweets".

Who is Brook Hines?

[highplainsdem]

32. The most important tweets there are the ones from Preston. Her tweets. Her campaign ad for Warren.

The author of the article, Colin Kalmbacher, is an attorney who's also written for the Guardian and Real Clear Politics.

You seem to want to discuss everything EXCEPT Preston's racist and homophobic tweets, and her relationship to the Warren campaign.

[kcr]

36. Hey, let's look at Collin Kalmacher's articles

Here's this debunked right wing crap https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/new-docs-suggest-elizabeth-warren-lied-about-being-fired-from-teaching-job-was-actually-rehired/

Oh, you should love this one https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/democratic-lawmaker-says-joe-biden-actually-has-some-explaining-to-do-on-ukraine/

The MAGA students were the real victims https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/inflammatory-rhetoric-wapo-trashes-nick-sandmanns-lawsuit-as-political-stunt-asks-for-dismissal/

I didn't read the article about bathsalts from 2011, in the Guardian

[highplainsdem]

37. You obviously still don't want to discuss Preston's tweets.

[kcr]

42. You obviously still want to smear Warren using highly questionable sources

[lapucelle]

39. The most important tweet is this one.

Link to tweet

I know who the affianced, very concerned Colin "Kevin Bacon in Tremors" Kalmbacher is and am familiar with the stuff he writes.

[highplainsdem]

44. Preston is blaming her drug problems 8 years ago for those tweets. The problem with that excuse

is that similar tweets as recent as last year have already surfaced. See the LA Blade article linked to in reply 35.

[melman]

38. Ashlee Marie Preston is a Warren campaign surrogate

You know it's true. All this other irrelevant nonsense you're spamming the thread with is just that. Irrelevant nonsense.

[melman]

34. Team Warren tweet

Link to tweet

[kcr]

41. What a horrible tweet

[melman]

48. Did someone say it was horrible?

No. The point is, people are pretending Preston had no connection to the campaign. And that is obviously complete bullshit.

[kcr]

51. Point out where anyone is pretending that.

[George II]

63. The difference is that the Warren Campaign heard about this and immediately took action....

....unlike another campaign that ignored similar and even WORSE behavior for three years because it was "too busy".

[melman]

69. Please

It's all over the thread.

[George II]

70. No it isn't. Can you be specific?

[lapucelle]

56. It's almost comical the way bots are swarming that hashtag,

all in the service of distracting attention from a campaign's troubling hire of a youtuber who manipulated historic footage of MLK into a racist parody.

[lapucelle]

47. How nice!

[melman]

49. The donut gag!

It just never ever gets old.

[George II]

67. Glazed or powdered sugar? Mmmmmm.

[ecstatic]

45. Interesting. That's a nice, heartfelt apology. nt

[Aaron Pereira]

17. Was she an official employee?

I don't think you can do a vetting program for every person who happens to appear in a campaign video. If she was an actual employee firing would be appropriate.

[kcr]

20. No. Apparently she was a super secret Warren Surrogate.

The truth was revealed by exposing her appearance on The Young Turks. Because everyone knows that the most effective surrogate is the secret one that no one knows about. That makes sense, right? Thank goodness Bernie tweeters were on the case.

[highplainsdem]

26. When she's a (very) minor celebrity and they feature her in a campaign ad, she's a surrogate, and

not a secret one.

[kcr]

28. The source you cited claimed otherwise

I'm going directly from the article in your OP. It links to a tweet that claims she hid the fact she was a surrogate, then posts the TYT video where she claims she is one. Then this meticulous Law and Crime journalist decides for some reason to use this Tweet source to call her a "paid" surrogate.

[lapucelle]

46. How interesting to define Ashlee Marie Preston as "a (very) minor celebrity".

Ashlee Marie Preston is an American media personality, journalist and activist, the first trans woman to become editor-in-chief of a national publication, Wear Your Voice Magazine, and the first openly trans person to run for state office in California. Originally from Kentucky, she moved to Los Angeles and began transitioning at age 19.

She first rose to public attention after publicly confronting Caitlyn Jenner over her support for the Trump administration. She contributed her writing to a number of publications, and has been recognized for her activism by various media organizations and companies. She is active in the Los Angeles trans community, and is a member of multiple community organizations, including serving as the chair of communications and media sponsorship with group Los Angeles Pride, and as a community outreach member with the Human Rights Campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashlee_Marie_Preston

marginalize (verb)
to treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral.

[lapucelle]

27. According to The Residue's sleuthing, she is a self-described surrogate.

Who is The Residue? He certainly seems bent on slandering E Warren.

[brooklynite]

18. Any campaign should be able to competently handle staff vetting...

...but any campaign staffer should expect to get caught if they have something dark in their background. I wonder why they even bother to apply?

[DrFunkenstein]

29. Warren Is Unfit For Office, We Must Stop Her!

I'm guessing the subtext of the OP is to suggest as much.

I'd expect this sort of stuff from Republicans, but here?

[highplainsdem]

30. LOL! What a wild imagination you have! I'm not suggesting anything of the sort.

But we had multiple threads here yesterday about problems with a video creator who was going to be working with the Sanders campaign.

And when I checked Mediaite today, as I always do, this story at their sister site LawAndCrime.com showed up near the top of the page, and it reminded me of the problems the Sanders campaign had yesterday.

[highplainsdem]

35. Los Angeles Blade story on this:

https://www.losangelesblade.com/2019/10/14/ashlee-marie-preston-warren-campaign-trans-rep-apologizes-for-old-bigoted-tweets/

Ashlee Marie Preston, Warren campaign trans rep, apologizes for old bigoted tweets


Ashlee Marie Preston, a nationally known Los Angeles-based transgender activist and paid surrogate for the presidential campaign of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, came under heavy criticism Monday after a series of old homophobic and racist tweets surfaced over the weekend.

Preston was featured in a Warren campaign video released last Thursday, in advance of the HRC/CNN Equality Town Hall on Oct. 10. She was apparently scheduled to ask a question at the event but was pulled by CNN at the last minute. She told Out Magazine that she decided not to attend the historic event since being present but silent would be “an act of erasure.” CNN did not reply to Out’s request for an explanation.

-snip-

Btw, I found that link thanks to a tweet from the Washington Blade:

Link to tweet

I've occasionally been searching Twitter for

warren preston

to see if there's any response from the Warren campaign.

[kcr]

50. They are linking to the same source as your OP

[highplainsdem]

53. And they're all pointing to Preston's tweets.

If she isn't a paid surrogate, the Warren campaign should explain that.

I suppose they could try denying she's been a surrogate at all, but that would be more difficult.

The Sanders campaign was pretty quick to distance itself from those problematic videos, as well as the person who created them.

I still haven't found any response from the Warren campaign to Preston's tweets.

[kcr]

57. No. The Warren campaign doesn't have to respond to every right wing/dirtbag "left" twitter smear.

Also, campaign surrogates generally aren't paid, so it's unlikely in any case. Maybe you didn't know that.

[highplainsdem]

58. The Twitter users I've seen posting the most about this are Sanders supporters who didn't like

Preston attacking Sanders and his supporters.

[kcr]

59. Oh, is that all?

Has this been a thing between them and Preston for some time? Huh, that would explain it.

Or did someone go around digging up old Tweets of anyone associated with Warren to try to make a false equivalency after yesterday?

[Cha]

68. That's rude.. quit trying to "kill the messenger"..

it's not working.

[lapucelle]

61. The story in The Blade links only to Kalmbacher and to the same twitter posts

from the same dicey characters that Kalmbacher cites.

One of the twitter "researchers" is making what sounds like an inappropriate request.



*******************************************************************************************

NB twitter "researchers": The "I didn't really mean what everyone thought I meant " excuse has already been taken.

Link to tweet

?lang=en

[seaglass]

40. Her apology appeared heartfelt unlike the Sanders video guy who just made a bunch of excuses.

Also, I'd still vote Warren over Biden in the primary so...

[highplainsdem]

43. I'm not suggesting anyone not vote for Warren. Re Preston's apology -- she blames drug problems

in the past for those tweets. The problem there is that similar tweets as recent as last year have already surfaced. See the LA Blade article linked to in reply 35.

[seaglass]

52. Again

On edit, yeah I wouldn't reduce it to just "drug problems" maybe have a little empathy for the bad place she was in or not.

[BlueMississippi]

60. Didn't she have a plan for vetting staffers?