We wouldn’t want to be Joe Biden’s staff right now. Lord knows they’ve got their work cut out for them. Having to explain away his incoherent ramblings and try to bury Tara Reade’s allegations is bad enough, but now they’ve got to deal with the revelation that Biden was among those who submitted unmasking requests for the identity of the man who would later be revealed to be Gen. Michael Flynn.
CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge’s tweet featuring the list of names has been blowing up:
SCOOP @CBSNews obtains @RichardGrenell notification to congress declassified “unmasking list” Flynn between late 2016 and January 2017 – Read 3 pages provided by NSA here pic.twitter.com/NozVpQlRn2
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) May 13, 2020
And while media firefighters have mounted valiant efforts to spin this story away from the Obama administration and Joe Biden, this is one of those jobs that takes extra help. Fortunately, Joe Biden’s rapid response director Andrew Bates is ready and willing to lend a hand:
SCOOP: Catherine Herridge is a partisan, rightwing hack who is a regular conduit for conservative media manipulation ploys because she agrees to publicize things before contacting the target to ask for comment. https://t.co/A7skfQ2bbu
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewBatesNC) May 13, 2020
Ah, yes. Of course. This is Catherine Herridge’s fault.
Joe Biden's official response from the Biden campaign's Director of Rapid Response: https://t.co/yRb8viXN7C
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) May 13, 2020
And what a response it is.
Biden campaign attacking CBS reporter here https://t.co/pqwVoFMZdp
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) May 13, 2020
Catherine Herridge is a great journalist who is respected in the industry and has won awards for her work.
Sad to see the Biden campaign stoop so low with baseless attacks. https://t.co/MkyPQIyAv2 https://t.co/TePPb4aSvN
— kaitlin, not one of biden’s calendar models (@thefactualprep) May 13, 2020
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Can you imagine if Andrew Clark, Donald Trump’s rapid response director, tweeted something like that about, say, Jake Tapper?
And suddenly Dems are ok with "attacking the press"
— joe warner (@jwarner180) May 13, 2020
This is chilling. You're putting journalists lives in danger.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 13, 2020
Why is the Biden campaign attacking the free press?
I thought that was… Bad?
Trump-like, even? https://t.co/wviE3mEaV7
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) May 13, 2020
This is an attack on the free press. I'm literally shaking.
— ST_Nole (@ST_Nole) May 13, 2020
This @AndrewBatesNC fellow is risking journalists lives….am I doing this right?
— Gray Connolly (@GrayConnolly) May 13, 2020
It’s so hard to keep track.
Big Reliable Sources segment on this I expect https://t.co/Wbr1Tw7QwR
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) May 13, 2020
No doubt Brian Stelter’s retooling his entire newsletter to focus on this.
I'm sure @brianstelter will take the time as a media reporter and get on this blatant attack on journalism from a Biden staffer https://t.co/aj6VVkF4fD
— Branson Taylor (@Btaylor74) May 13, 2020
Stelter should be rallying the troops right now.
Remember when all those journalists got their panties in a wad when @SenMcSallyAZ called @mkraju a liberal hack? Remember how they rushed to his defense? How many will rush to Catherine's defense after this attack from the Biden campaign? Any? @JoeBiden? Didn't think so. https://t.co/B7ui86L5f3
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) May 13, 2020
***
Update:
Uh-oh! Looks like Joe Biden’s gonna have to punish his rapid response director for taking a page out of ‘the authoritarian playbook’ [screenshots] https://t.co/fPVxBe7y7x
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 13, 2020
***
Update:
Bates’ tweet seems to have been deleted. So odd. What to make of that?
Biden campaign deleted the tweet. Does that mean @CBS_Herridge's reporting stands then?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 13, 2020
Herridge’s reporting always stood … it’s Biden’s campaign that’s collapsing.
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