Did MSNBC Report That the Democratic Party ‘Interfered in the Primaries to Stop’ Sanders?

A tweet by activist Shaun King is a mixed bag.

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A Twitter spat between Bernie Sanders surrogate Shaun King and Rachel Maddow occurred the evening of Super Tuesday, in which King stated MSNBC and Maddow had reported the Democratic Party had interfered in the primaries to stop Bernie Sanders. Maddow, on the other hand, said that such reporting never occurred.  

In a tweet that received more than 10,000 retweets and over 33,000 likes, King told his 1.1 million followers:

https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1234982800484290560

Maddow was quick to deny the charge:

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  1. Avatar photo
    A Citizen

    Calling them "interference" is a mischaracterization? That's only because of the new irregular verb "act," i.e. I act, you act, they interfere. I await the Fact Checker that carefully limns the differences between electoral interference and legal actions with electoral implications.

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  2. Collin Saunders

    Josh Lederman’s title is misspelled. It says “national political perporter” but I’m pretty sure you meant “reporter.”

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  3. Avatar photo
    Rebecca

    Is this a joke? Pretty sure your subscribers understand how the word interference can be deployed as a weapon after going through an impeachment over it. Pro tip: it’s not interference when you’re doing the job you were hired to do. (Whether that job is being done well is a separate question, of course.)

    How about assuming we all understand spin and saving the fact checks for questions of fact?

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  4. John Cheyney

    I have no doubt that Democratic leadership had a discussion with Mike Bloomberg about dropping out. I also have no doubt they had the same conversation with Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar.

    Because they want to win. That's their job. That's literally their entire job, to get Democrats elected. They did what they thought was best to get a Democrat elected. Because that's their job.

    Mike Bloomberg said it best. He joined the race to defeat Trump and he got out of the race to defeat Trump. The leadership got together and came to the sobering conclusion that Bernie Sanders had a ceiling that wouldn't win and too much baggage that would make him vulnerable. So they got behind the other guy. Because they want to win.

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  5. Avatar photo
    Visibly

    Maybe I am an i..t, but why was it wrong for Democrats to argue that Bloomberg should drop out?

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About Alec Dent

Alec Dent is the culture editor and a staff writer for The Dispatch. He is a graduate of the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill, and previously oversaw The Dispatch's fact checking team.
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