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  • 2016-10-19 (xsd:date)
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  • WikiLeaks E-Mail Says Obama Directed His Supporters to Engage in 'All-American Voter Fraud' (en)
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  • The October 2016 WikiLeaks series The Podesta Emails gave readers an inside look at operations in the Democratic Party by publishing the communications of Hillary Clinton campaign director John Podesta, and one rumor connected with that e-mail dump held that one of those documents revealed in part that President Obama had directed his supporters to engage in a little all-American voter fraud. Misinterpretation and misrepresentation of WikiLeaks documents is rife, and the phrasing about a little all-American voter fraud came not from the actual text of one of the released documents but from a blog post about the WikiLeaks documents: A search of WikiLeaks returns zero results for the all-American voter fraud phrasing: As with many purported WikiLeaks revelations, the blog included not a link to the complete underlying document but only a screenshot of an out-of-context e-mail along with commentary about it: That e-mail was dated 14 May 2015, pertained to the upcoming 2016 Democratic caucuses in Colorado (eventually won by Bernie Sanders), and referenced unproven rumors that back in 2008 the Obama campaign had supposedly flooded the Iowa caucuses with ineligible voters from out of state: A December 2007 Politico article examined the claim made by a Clinton aide at the time that the Obama campaign was trying to manipulate the Iowa caucuses by busing in students from out of state: Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded to this controversy by saying: Rather than denigrating the caucus rights of students who go to school in Iowa, we would suggest the Clinton campaign organize them. Their attack here is borne out of pure political frustration. Iowans are determined to launch a winning candidate for the Democratic Party to bring real change for our country. They will not be deterred by efforts to dampen participation and 11th-hour attacks. In March 2016, the Clinton campaign allegedly repurposed these rumors and claimed Bernie Sanders' campaign was busing in ineligible voters to party caucuses. Sanders dismissed the rumor as a recycled smear used by David Brock: No e-mail released by WikiLeaks quoted John Podesta (or anyone else) saying that President Obama had engaged in (or suggested his supporters engage in) a little all-American voter fraud in Colorado. In 2015 Podesta referenced uncorroborated rumors from the 2008 campaign holding that President Obama had flooded the Iowa caucuses (not the Colorado caucuses, not any 2016 caucuses, and not any general election polling places) with ineligible voters during his run against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. (en)
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