Just hours before the first political showdown between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, it was revealed the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign will be using a new Twitter handle during the televised contest.
The Democratic National Committee will be working with the Biden campaign to “fact check” claims made by Trump in real time, according to a report from The Washington Post, which described the handle — @Truth — as “a new weapon in [the Democrats’] arsenal against President Trump.”
In its first post, shared Tuesday afternoon, Biden is asked by an off-camera reporter: “What do you feel like you have to accomplish to be successful in the debate?” The former vice president replied: “Just tell the truth.”
There are some questions about how the Democrats obtained the handle.
Steve Krakauer, editor of the Fourth Watch newsletter and the executive producer of Megyn Kelly’s new podcast, is asking how the Biden campaign secured ownership of the certainly coveted, one-word account name.
“What sort of deal gets made between Twitter and the Democrats to make that happen?” he asked.
News of the new DNC-controlled handle, which makes an absolute claim from the get-go, comes a couple months after it was learned a former staffer for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Biden’s running mate, works for Twitter.
Nick Pacilio, now a communications staffer for Twitter, served as a spokesperson for Harris from 2011 until 2014. Pacilio’s employment was of little interest until Biden named Harris as his running mate. Some, however, have since expressed concerns about his political persuasion and his ostensible connection to the Democratic senator.
It’s no secret Twitter has a leftward bent.
In 2018, Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey told New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen conservative employees “don’t fee safe to express their opinions” within his company.
“They do feel silenced by just the general swirl of what they perceive to be the broader percentage of leanings within the company,” he said, “and I don’t think that’s fair or right.”
Dorsey said he shared the admission with Rosen because he’d “rather know what someone biases to rather than try to interpret through their actions.”