Presidential contender and US Senator Bernie Sanders has elicited the side-eye from political observers over the appointment of his newest aide, Darius Gordon.
Gordon secured the role of deputy director of constituency organizing this week, tweeting that he was “humbled” to join Sanders’ team. It appears he’s since deleted his account, likely over old tweets uncovered by The Washington Beacon that reveal racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic remarks.
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“I got a black man’s body, white man’s power, Jew man money, and an Asian man life-span,” Gordon tweeted in 2011.
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In 2010, Gordon referred to the students of Jefferson Jr. High as “f*gs.” He also used the slur to refer to the Pittsburgh Stealers.
“F*** Asian people looking a like. White women with blonde hair all look the same!,” he tweeted in 2012.
“Now I like Jennifer Hudson, but it’s that other fat b**** I don’t like,” he said in 2011.
Neither Gordon nor the Sanders campaign has yet to comment on the new deputy director’s past tweets. The hiring of Gordon is particularly ironic given that Sen. Sanders is one of the few sitting Jewish senators in the nation.
In the past, the Sanders campaign has come under criticism for not doing more to dissuade its followers from disruptive behavior, and for not encouraging his followers to support the Democratic nominee against Donald Trump in 2016.
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Hdtex
Bernie doesn’t care. Par for the course.
maleficent
agree
NealB
The Sanders campaign clearly does care; it removed Gordon from the position immediately (the next day) after his long-ago posts came to light.
Den
Difficult story to unpack for several reasons.
First of all the Washington Free Beacon, source of the story, has a rather sketchy history: owned by a hedge fund billionaire and “conservative activist,” it has demonstrated both good journalism and slimy attempts at manipulation.
It is strongly behind Trump and jumps at any chance to smear his potential opposition. The consensus by analysts is that the Free Beacon is simply “better than other similar news sites such as the Daily Caller” which isn’t saying much!
Secondly however, is that the tweets, though old, seem to speak for themselves. What needs to be in the Queerty article is some context, such as how old Gordon is, and whether he has expressed similar sentiments more recently than 8-9 years ago. Most of the Free Beacon article is about Beacon’s supposed antisemitism, and while they do list one definitely antisemitic tweet, others shown are more about support for Palestinian self determination and antizionist. The Beacon seems to make that common conservative (and, oddly, antisemitic) error of conflating antizionism with antisemitism and ignoring that criticism of policy towards Palestine is as strong in Israel as it is here (or stronger).
Personally, I hope Sanders does not get the nomination, but if he does I will vote for him as the most important aspect of the 2020 election is to deny Trump a second term. Given his recent court appointments as well as Barr’s disconcerting statement regarding the supremacy of police over the concerns of communities they verifiably oppress, and his clumsy destruction of our country’s reputation, a second term is dangerous for the future of our constitutional democracy. Anyone who at this point denies Trump will continue to erode LGBT rights and coddle theocrats and dominionists has their eyes and ears closed.
Rock-N-RollHS
Oh, the outrage! Some of the tweets are funny, some are just dumb. But 9 years ago? In any event, Bernie also wants that black vote, hence hiring Darius.
enlightenone
Proper vesting matters since we know what happens “when you have the very best people!” I will wait and see how and when Bernie responds to this potential scandal. Still, have Ms. Warren to vote for just in case!
Ronbo
Sanders immediately fired Gordon.
OkinSama
This is such a typical smear tactic.. They’ve used it against Bernie half a dozen times. He hires some new young person, so the haters go and dig into years of what that person has said or done.. Till they find some immature junk from years ago. Who cares, it was over a decade ago, and they’ve matured since then.
They never have this much scrutiny for any other candidate’s hires.
RyanMBecker
“Who cares, it was over a decade ago, and they’ve matured since then.”
And you know that because…? Because he deleted the tweets to cover his tracks or because he owned up to them and apologized? Would you be so lax if he was a Trump aide?
Sorry, but proper vetting is sign of a good executive, and Sanders is running for the Executive branch. I don’t want a repeat of Trump’s scandal-ridden revolving door. Or was Sanders hiring a young black staffer because simply because he was young and black?
RyanMBecker
“Who cares, it was over a decade ago, and they’ve matured since then.”
You obviously don’t know American politics. You don’t think that such information will be used by Trump should Sanders get the nomination? Remember how he neutralized charges of harassment by bringing up Bill Clinton’s past?
Do you really think it’s helpful to have a bigot on staff when it’s one of the criticisms against Trump? Saying that it was from 9 years ago is as valid as Trump’s defenders dismissing his p*ssy comment as “boytalk.” The fact that this guy offends many groups makes him especially problematic — and even more so since Sanders is a progressive. I hear charges of hypocrisy around the corner.
Ronbo
@Ryan
You seriously think that tRump has the moral advantage to make an attack against someone that Sanders hired and fired immediately when revealed?!?
Those are some crazy crackers you are munching on.
djmcgamester
Let’s just cut to the chase. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t have some shadiness in their past. There is not a politician alive who either has a shady past or works with someone who did. We all screw up at times. True or not, just move on.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I hope Bernie Sanders not only wins the nomination but becomes the next American president! He’s the only man with integrity and principles running, the rest, including Biden, are more of the same.
With love from the great white north!!
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Have any of you considered that this shows that Bernie believes in diversity? Its actually a good thing because it proves he has people of opposing views on his campaign staff. Whats so bad about diversity in views? We do it all of the time right here on Queerty.
jkb
So Bernie is now gonna promote racism, homophobia, etc. because he hired someone who tweeted some stupid sh*t a decade ago. Can’t argue against his policies, so they grasp at straws.
winemaker
who really gives a rats tukus about this ole ‘yiddiot’ socialist think or says.. if God forbid this old fart gets the White House, he;ll tax the middle class into the poor house with all his freebies, like college education and free healthcare that need to be paid for and you can expect the middle class to foot the bill pure and simple. FYI: socialism doesn’t work, never has worked and never will work for the benefit of all. just ask the people of Venezuela, Cuba or Russia. ‘Nuff said about this idiot
Ronbo
Let’s work to make Capitalism better with a balance of Socialism. After all, we like the Post Office (socialist), we love Social Security (socialist), we love the fire department (socialist), we love public education (socialist), we love public roads and bridges (socialist), we love public libraries (socialist), etc….
Maybe you need to learn the words and meaning before allowing a single word to drive you nuts.
Does your use of “yiddiot” indicate bigotry or is that what your mom calls you?
Kangol2
Bernie Sanders can do better. Drop him, Bernie!
lord.krath
I don’t understand why people would give Bernie a pass on this. He needs to say and do something.
Why? Because we expect it of every other politician these days. 9 years ago, so what, people have had things they’ve said far longer ago than this and been held to account.
I personally don’t care what staffers think or do or say in their off time. But it is telling of a campaign if they turn a blind eye to this.
Unless we’re admitting that we are all indeed hypocrites for demanding more of others than from our presidential contenders and politicians in general… then all bets are off.
Kieran
This is shocking. Racism and homophobia are so unusual in the black community.
NealB
Darius Gordon was removed from the position mentioned in this article by the Sanders campaign more-or-less immediately (the next day). “He is no longer with the campaign and we wish him the best,” per the campaign last Thursday. So, bad reporting, this was a non-story before it was published here.
Paul Morton
No one has bothered to point out winemaker’s grotesque anti-Semitism. So the job is mine. winemaker is a coward who anonymously publishes hate screeds in the comments section of a gay website. I feel sorry for winemaker.
Sanders and his campaign are not fueled by racism, homophobia, or xenophobia. The decision to hire Gordon seems out-of-character. That said, I would like to know more about Gordon. I tell everyone: Twitter is NOT your friend.
This site as a whole seems particularly friendly to Pete Buttigieg, who I consider, in the words of some folks in my corner of the Internet, “sentient college admissions essay.” Sanders has spent a career advocating for the LGBTQ community, in between fighting racial injustice and economic inequality. He’s also the only guy running who talks about the Palestinian people like they’re…um…people. I’ll take him over a soulless McKinsey drone whose mayoralty has been marked by gentrification and a blind eye towards police malfeasance. His “aw shucks” Midwestern schtick is BS. Oh my god, wait! You mean he’s read Ulysses. I took a Joyce class in college too. That doesn’t make me presidential material.
Please do some fact-checking. There are currently nine Jewish people in the US Senate. That doesn’t strike me as “a few.” And I would add that Sanders, whose family members were killed in the Holocaust, probably takes anti-Semitism a little more seriously than most people on this website, given the fact that winemaker has a place on this thread.
Ronbo
Great comment! Keep posting.
RainbowWitch
I was a huge Sanders supporter in 2015-2016 and I’m still planning on voting for him but between poor staffing choices and some of his other more toxic supporters I’m definitely feeling put off.