I came across this intentionally misleading meme today. It insists Bernie’s filed for 2018 re-election to the Senate as an Independent. However, it’s not true. No such filing’s been made. You can find all the information at http://www.fec.gov/fecviewer/CandidateCommitteeDetail.do. The reason I find discussing this meme important comes in towards the end of this blog.
But first, let’s take a few moments to walk through debunking this BS…
1) Searching for Sanders yields these results. Notice the “Active Through” column. The Senate line says 2016, not 2018. Sanders was first elected to the Senate in 2006, but the 2006 entry here is for the House. He ran for re-election to the Senate in 2012, but that entry’s missing.
Why?
Because all of Sanders’ House races are organized into that House entry. All of the Senate races are organized into that Senate entry. That’s how the site works.
2) The meme uses this part of Sanders’ Senate page to make its point. There are all kinds of problems with doing that, as we’ll see below.
The first thing to note is the information on this page includes all of fiscal year 2015. This means it includes time from before Sanders declared his Presidential run.
3) Clicking on the filings tab shows this result. The last candidate declaration was made in 2007 for the 2012 election.
No 2018 filing exists here.
2013 is the latest year available on this tab. While you can click on “FRIENDS OF BERNIE SANDERS” to get more documents and details, no re-election filing exists there either.
In short, this tab alone debunks the entire meme.
4) The latest re-election filing specifies the year 2012. I shouldn’t have to point out that 2012 is not 2018, but apparently that’s rocket science for some people.
5) Go to the summary tab. In the final quarter of 2015, only $225 were raised. Nothing large enough to report has come in since then. Other candidates, and Bernie’s own Presidential page *do* show more recent data — including his $21-million-plus January 2016 haul.
This means that any Sanders re-election campaign is almost — if not totally — inactive.
6) Using the meme’s logic, Barack Obama ran for Senate in 2010 even though he was already President. Also notice the 2016 date in the Presidential account line. Guess he’s running for a third term after all, eh?
7) *gasp!*
Obama’s Senate re-election campaign had enough financial information to report through September 2009! And he must’ve filed for a 2010 run! Look at that! (*sarcasm*)
This is the same page the meme uses for Sanders’ mythical 2018 filing. Using its logic, Obama was actually running for the Senate in 2010 even though he was President, and he was fundraising for that race...even though he was President.
8) Lest you think this meme comes from a Republican...I can assure you it does not. It was actually made by Che Bustamante, apparently a diehard Clinton fan who seems to enjoy attacking Bernie supporters (https://www.facebook.com/che.bustamante.395).
It might surprise him to know that using his own “logic”, Hillary herself has an active Senate campaign.
9) Clicking on Hillary’s Senate account yields this page. Again, using the meme’s logic, apparently Hillary had a 2012 election campaign going, and it’s been active enough that it had things to report...for fiscal year 2015.
Maybe Hillary’s got a time machine and intends to go back in time and run for Senate or something. I don’t really know. The meme’s logic just completely falls apart after any basic examination.
Similar information exists on Cruz and Rubio, and likely for pretty much every current legislator.
* * *
This meme has started appearing among my Facebook friends network — with people wanting to know why he’s already switching allegiances back to “independent” — even though the meme’s author is flat-out lying and Bernie’s done no such thing.
I contacted the author, who to the say the least, was not exactly receptive. Apparently I’m the one who doesn’t know how to use the FEC site, I’m a “Berner,” and he wanted to know why I bothered fact checking. My evidence was dismissed with a sarcastic laughing photo and an “Lol whatever.”
And the meme remains public on his page.
Liking Clinton and/or disliking Bernie is fine. Personally I don’t like Clinton, but I’m not going to create misleading or flat-out fake memes or “news” to bash her or her supporters.
Bill Clinton’s appearance at Massachusetts polls, for instance, has a lot of Bernie fans upset. Was it in bad taste? Sure. Was it illegal? Not based on what I’ve read. Should he be arrested? Uhh…seriously dude...you’ve gotta be kidding.
Both Democratic camps are getting nastier, but if either side puts up with lies and memes like this, it makes us no better than the Trump crowd.