Photo credit: Dan Lacey, Flickr. License. |
Part of modeling that behavior was Biden's courageous refusal to ask volunteers to go door-to-door in person for him, until his campaign can be absolutely sure that in-person canvassing can be conducted safely, both for voters and for volunteers. When the Biden campaign announced that they were finally ready for in-person canvassing on Thursday - coincidentally the same day Donald Trump announced he tested positive for COVID - not only did Republicans ridicule him for a supposed flip-flip, but so did radical leftists who'd previously panned the Biden campaign for allowing Trump to have the advantage in door-to-door voter persuasion.
Leftists - even the ones who call themselves 'journalists' - who still have a bitter taste in their mouth from having their savior Bernie Sanders get beaten handily twice by Democratic voters (or as they describe us, "the DNC") took the Trump campaign at their word that they were knocking on a million doors a week, and that pretty much meant that the Biden campaign is just doooooooomed.
Love how the hostility to Bernie Sanders has translated into hostility to the idea of empowering volunteers to talk to voters. If you wear a mask, door-knocking is fine.
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) September 16, 2020
Biden didn't do it during the primary either. They think it doesn't matter. https://t.co/l7Tw3ptaVp
Ryan Grim, the DC Bureau Chief at Glenn Greenwald's The Intercept, a magazine known for anti-Democratic, pro-Sanders and pro-Trump views, even panned Biden's caution as anti-protest, and made sure to bask in what he believed was Biden's apparent reversal.
Biden is preparing to do in-person canvassing, which, if done safely, is smart. Everybody who dragged me for saying so can now go drag him instead. https://t.co/6SdAFPVZP1
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 1, 2020
But what even The Intercept - a name incepted from Edward Snowden's theft of classified information and subsequent flight to Putin's Moscow - could not have intercepted is that the GOP canvassing efforts were a petri-dish for COVID. Their canvasser-in-chief, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday, the day before Donald and Melania Trump did.
Indeed, the Republicans had been boasting about their in-person canvassing numbers, and Ms. McDaniel had served as their canvass-commander-in-chief. McDaniel herself highlighted news stories and photos that show off her with Trump canvassing teams, maskless and huddled together in tight spaces.
We have made 9 million door knocks and phone calls in Wisconsin alone.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 19, 2020
@realDonaldTrump fought hard to win the state in 2016, and we are fighting hard to win it again! #LeadRight https://t.co/TJKSX98xcD
Why would anyone expect "journalists" known for their "investigative" bona fides to ever click on a news report to see if what the Republicans were peddling was, in fact, COVID-safe or whether they were, like most every Trump event, a superspreader?
This, according to Ryan Grim, was as 'safe' as the Biden team needed to be in order to in-person canvass. After all, the Republicans were doing it! |
How could Ryan Grim and $90 million in billionaire cash at The Intercept have known? Perhaps if they hadn't fired their entire research team in order to protect the fat salaries of their top-heavy meme team.