NYT: Biden Is Trying to Get TikTokers and "Influencers" on His Side But They Don't Trust Him and Think He's Cringe

More humiliation of a senior with dementia.

And the new Mrs. President Wilson is allowing this.

On a Friday afternoon in late April, President Biden brought celebrities and elite social media influencers together for a White House reception. Fran Drescher and David Cross mingled with Ilona Maher, a rugby star, and V from @underthedesknews, at a mixer meant to generate warm feelings and badly needed pro-Biden content.

Jonathan M. Katz, an independent journalist and sharp critic of the administration, was shocked to get an invitation. When he met Mr. Biden, he pointedly asked about military aid to Israel and suggested he was supporting a "genocide." Mr. Biden answered politely, but then appeared to grow impatient. "I know you're a typical press guy," he said. "I trust you as far as I can throw your phone." Aides then ushered Mr. Katz away.

The episode, which Mr. Katz recorded on video and shared with his roughly 100,000 followers, was one in a series of Mr. Biden's awkward attempts to manufacture online enthusiasm for his candidacy.

For months, the president's campaign has watched as its rival, Donald J. Trump, has surfed on his popularity among the very online. Mr. Trump's supporters produce an endless stream of memes, videos and adoring posts -- all essentially free advertising -- that reach an increasingly crucial slice of voters.

Mr. Biden and his allies are working furiously to build a comparable online army, trying to persuade, or in some cases pay, people to sing Mr. Biden's praises to their large followings. They are finding that social media feeds are difficult territory for an 81-year-old president whose policies on Gaza and immigration are unpopular on the left.

"It's clear we have to use influencers or creators as a way to reach the future of the progressive movement," said Brian Rolling, co-founder of MurMur Impact, a group that has worked with liberal causes on mobilizing Gen Z voters. "But we talk to a lot of young people and they're just not on board with Biden."

...

Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting Mr. Biden's campaign, has pledged to spend at least $1 million on influencers, some of whom will be paid to share talking points online.

This is a special usage of the word "some." They mean "all" but want to preserve the illusion that a couple of people are repeating their talking points because they actually believe them.

...

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent $150,000 in March to hire an influencer marketing agency. And in late April, the Biden campaign -- which said it does not pay influencers for content -- paid almost $2 million to retain Village Marketing, an influencer agency, to help run its social media outreach program.

They're lying. They pay these companies knowing that the companies always pay "influencers" to advertise whatever product is being sold. Biden is paying a front group to pay off influencers, and even he knows that.

...

Polling suggests Mr. Biden is struggling with [younger] voters. In a recent NBC poll, Mr. Biden held a commanding advantage among voters who regularly consume traditional news. But Mr. Trump led decisively those among those who said they rely primarily on social media for information, an advantage that stretched to more than 25 points among those who follow no political news at all.

...

That project, however, has been difficult for Mr. Biden.

...

The enthusiasm gap is measurable, particularly on TikTok.

Since February, when the Biden campaign officially joined the platform, it has posted more than 200 times and garnered just over 375,000 followers. Mr. Trump joined TikTok less than two weeks ago but has already accumulated 6.2 million followers.
"They're inviting a few people to the White House, they're doing dinners," said Grace Murray Vazquez, vice president for strategy at the social media marketing agency Fohr, which said it did work with the Biden campaign in 2020 but has not been contacted to do so this year. "It's a drop in the bucket."

Meanwhile, Trump is doing interviews with influencer-turned-WWF-"Wrestler" Logan Paul.

Below: Granpa Felonyfingers tells a TikTok influencer "I trust you as far as I can throw your phone," then adds "I've got a good arm, man, I can throw a long way."

He's literally always lying, bragging, and boasting. It never stops. There is no off-switch on his absurd delusions of hyperpotency. He's like a Kim Il-Jong.

He's always threatening to beat people up, "take 'im behind the woodshed," and challenging people to push-up contests. Now he's claiming he's got a MLB gun on him.

Meanwhile, he can't even stand for ten minutes without trying to sit down on an invisible chair.

He's a bully now and always has been. He's just an absurd, delusional bully. That doesn't mean the intent to bully isn't there.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:30 PM

| Access Comments