Dan Scavino, Trump's White House Director of Social Media, tweeted a doctored video of a local news interview that made it appear as if Joe Biden had fallen asleep. Guess what? It was actually an interview with Harry Belafonte. You can even hear the anchorwoman address the person as "Harry." They spliced Joe Biden into the split screen instead of Harry Belafonte, and also spliced the anchorwoman's introduction to take out most references to Harry Belafonte.
— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) August 30, 2020
Twitter slapped a "manipulated media" label on it, but the damage is done, and for some reason, the video is permitted to remain on the site.
How are these amateurs able to get away with this sh*t? They KNOW they will get checked. I'll tell you, kids! They can get away with it because they don't care. Why don't they care? Because their target audience doesn't care. They'll either believe it because they're too stupid to know it's fake, or they'll learn it's fake and not care because they're too cynical and intellectually dishonest for it to make a difference to them. They're getting their judges and their sanctioned racism and their gunz, so TRUMP 2020!
Sure enough, it wasn't long before a fellow anchor came along to correct the record.
This is fake. You know how I know? I was the coanchor in studio.
We were interviewing Harry Belafonte. https://t.co/gPRU9JGyI7— John Dabkovich (@JohnDabkovich) August 31, 2020
— John Dabkovich (@JohnDabkovich) August 31, 2020
This on the heels of another manipulated video tweeted over the weekend by Minority Whip Steve Scalise, in which the creator of the video added words to health care activist Ady Barkan's question to Joe Biden. Barkan uses a wheelchair because of ALS, and is only able to speak by using a computerized voice program. The propaganda Scalise tweeted out made it seem as though Joe Biden wanted to defund the police — something he has repeatedly denied.
And today, less than an hour after Joe Biden's fantastic speech on police brutality and Trump's encouraging violence in cities across the nation, another manipulated video begins to circulate:
Joe Biden says "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America!" pic.twitter.com/wSKe4N1XzF
— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) August 31, 2020
Trump War Room is an official Trump account. Deliberately editing Joe Biden's statement out of context for their own purposes.
Twitter slapped a warning on that video as well, but at this point, why isn't the entire Trump team simply restricted from sharing videos on Twitter (and Facebook?)
This is edited out of context.
Full quote: Here’s what Biden actually said: “...Trump and Pence are running on this, ‘You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.’ And what’s their proof? The violence you’re seeing in Donald Trump’s America.” https://t.co/WWytgZxczq— Jorge Ribas (@jribas) August 31, 2020
Because here's what we know for a fact. President Obama's social media team would NEVER allow such a thing to happen. And if they, by some strange occurrence managed to do such a thing even by accident, the GOP would be screaming bloody murder and calling for his head. Jesse Lee would know — he had the job under Obama that Dan Scavino has now.
Dan Scavino needs to be fired, and thrown off all social media platforms. Yesterday.
Time to scrap @DanScavino’s accounts. He openly promotes QAnon, and flagrantly violates Twitter’s policies. I get the tension when it’s the President’s account, but Scavino is just a chump getting paid almost $200K/ year by the taxpayer to pollute democracy through Twitter. https://t.co/cNe7ay5xj1
— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) August 31, 2020
