Bernie Sanders adviser posed as independent journalist to attack 2020 rivals

For months, a senior adviser to Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders used his platform as a journalist to bash rivals to his boss without revealing his political role.

David Sirota was brought on as a speechwriter and senior adviser to Sanders in March, but before that had been working informally for the Sanders campaign, according to the Atlantic. By the time campaign manager Faiz Shakir confirmed that Sirota had been advising Sanders, Sirota had deleted more than 20,000 tweets from his profile, which has more than 125,000 followers.

In one of the tweets from January, Sirota responded to criticism after attacking the record of at-the-time undeclared 2020 contender Beto O’Rourke. He used his platform as a self-described reporter to defend against that criticism.

“The screaming temper tantrums by Democratic Party operatives whenever reporters scrutinize a lawmaker’s voting record is something to behold. These people quite literally hate democracy,” Sirota wrote. While writing that, he was working for Sanders.

Sirota also attacked other 2020 candidates, including Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Michael Bennet of Colorado.

“Wow — it took Kamala Harris all of 24 hours to begin retreating from Medicare for All the moment the GOP and billionaires started complaining,” he tweeted in January.

Booker came in for criticism, too, as he “defended Mitt Romney’s Wall St. Firm, attacked the Obama campaign & voted with the GOP to help the pharmaceutical industry kill legislation to reduce the price of medicine.”

Earlier this month, Sanders sent an email urging his supporters to “engage respectfully with our Democratic opponents.” He went on to write, “I want to be clear that I condemn bullying and harassment of any kind and in any space.”

Speaking to the Atlantic about the article, Shakir said that he thinks Sirota is apologetic about the past tweets. “All I can say is, going forward, he is very much a team player,” Shakir said.

On Twitter Tuesday after the story broke, Sirota tried to deflect, saying people should focus on his wife, Democratic state Rep. Emily Sirota: “Hey Twitter: I assure you, I am not this interesting. I am not worth 7000+ tweets. But you know who is? Democratic State Rep. @EmilyForCO — especially as she and her Democratic colleagues right now fight for landmark legislation to protect people’s health and safety. #copolitics”

As of Tuesday night, after the purge of tens of thousands of tweets, Sirota had fewer than 200 remaining on his account.