Trump’s Former Top Intel Adviser Has Become a Key Source of Disinformation – By Dan Freidman (Mother Jones) / Nov 2 2020
As the election nears, Richard Grenell is lying about Biden’s mask and Harris’ associations.
For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.
The primary source of disinformation in the 2020 campaign is not Russia, or any foreign state, but rather President Donald Trump and his administration. And a key culprit is Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell.
Grenell—who has also served as Trump’s ambassador to Germany and as a special envoy for peace talks between Serbia and Kosovo—on Sunday tweeted a photograph showing Joe Biden maskless on a plane, along with an image of Biden wearing a mask while outdoors. The tweet suggested that Biden is a “phony” whose mask use is nothing more than a public pose. But as legal scholar Steve Vladeck and others quickly noted, the photo of Biden without a mask is from November, before the pandemic. Grenell appears to have taken the picture from a Vogue Magazine article on Biden’s traveling press secretary, Remi Yamamoto, while omitting the caption that noted the date.
Dear @RichardGrenell:
As anyone can see for themselves, the picture you've posted (nicely edited to crop out the caption and credit) is originally from a November *2019* @voguemagazine story—before anyone was wearing masks:https://t.co/Q8ntbf69qH
So who's the phony? https://t.co/dI45IabnxQ
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) November 2, 2020
Confronted with his error, Grenell attacked those who flagged it, then posted another picture of Biden without a mask, this time ignoring the fact that it came from a drive-in rally where Biden wore a mask prior to taking the stage, where he spoke alone.
Continue to article: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/11/trumps-former-top-intel-adviser-has-become-a-key-source-of-disinformation/
