Biden-Linked News Site Axios Attacks Democratic Presidential Candidate Dean Phillips
Cabinet Secretary Evan Ryan Founded Website After Leaving Obama Administration Where She Worked for Vice President Joe Biden — OPINON
Axios, a news site seemingly (or unseemly) possessing close ties to the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party Establishment ran two negative stories on Democratic Presidential candidate Dean Phillips in the last month. This is some of the only media coverage the maverick has received focusing on him exclusively.
Phillips recently complained that he has been blackballed by liberal-tilting establishment media.
Politico quoted the long shot as saying, “I’m appalled…I’m disappointed. I’m disgusted that professionals who ostensibly have committed their entire careers to sharing truth and to providing facts and to sharing information with American voters … are fundamentally avoiding their responsibilities.
I myself came upon the two Axios articles when doing a simple Google search on “Dean Phillips” to assess the quantity and quality of coverage of the Congressman. There wasn’t much, but there was these two negative stories.
A consideration of the interrelationships of Axios and individuals and organizations involved with the negative coverage just might prove he’s right that he is being blackballed by pro-Biden media.
Case #1: Sly Hit Piece
On December 17, 2023, Axios published Dean Phillips’ standing on Capitol Hill has all but collapsed, a sly hit piece that sought to undermine the Congressman by calling into question his character. How dare he say negative things about President Superman when Trump-Godzilla is threatening to curb stomp Tokyo Tower yet again!
Basically, this example of journalism advocates the Democratic National Establishment’s talking point that with Joe Biden being the bulwark holding up American democracy, no democracy is to be tolerated in the Democratic Presidential primaries.
Long story short: U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), though a good man (in the past), is a threat to democracy.
Ironically, by running for president to give Democratic voters choice, a process known as “democracy” in the pre-MAGA media pile on years, Phillips…. Well, you get it.
The threat Dean Phillips represents is not to democracy, but to the reelection of Joe Biden. And that threat must be stopped, even if it means jettisoning democracy in the Democratic Party.
Axios followed up on its attempted demolition of Dean Phillips’ reputation with a January 3rd piece priding itself on beating other news organizations, almost all of which have blackballed candidate Phillips by ignoring him, to scoop the poop on the Congressman.
Scoop: Watchdog files FEC complaint against Dean Phillips is about an ethics complaint filed by the Campaign for Accountability (CfA). Not surprisingly, the CfA was started with funding from a non-profit with significant links to the Democratic Party Establishment, the Hopewell Fund.
The Hopewell Fund is managed by the for-profit political consulting company Arabella Advisors, one of the major bundlers of “dark money” for liberal Democrats.
Funneling in excess of $127 million in 2020 to left-leaning candidates and causes, the Hopewell Fund ranks among the top five nonprofits linked to the Democratic Party
Ties to the Democratic National Establishment
One of the founders of Axios was Evan Ryan, who is a White House cabinet secretary for President Biden. She served as executive vice president of the news site between stints in the Obama and Biden Administrations.
During Biden’s vice presidency, she served as his assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison. She also served as an assistant to President Barack Obama before being appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Ryan also has close ties to the Clintons, and is about as Democratic National Establishment as one can get. She served was deputy director of scheduling for Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady before being promoted to the position of special assistant to her chief of staff. Ryan then served on Hillary’s 2000 Senate campaign. Other Clinton ties included a job with the Clinton Global Initiative.
Evan Ryan is a heavy hitter in the Democratic National Establishment. And she serves Joe Biden.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Ryan was a senior advisor on the Biden transition team. She subsequently was appointed White House cabinet secretary when Joe Biden took office. She also served as as deputy campaign manager for Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign that never made it past the Iowa caucuses.
Has Phillips Been Targeted by Pro-Biden “Shadow Campaign”?
According to the January 3, 2024 Axios article about the CfA’s complaint to the Federal Election Committee, “The complaint signed by the group’s executive director Michelle Kuppersmith argues that ‘there could scarcely be a more blatant and egregious example of a presidential campaign illegally coordinating with a super PAC.’”
Before Kuppersmith joined CfA, she worked for Accountable.US (a.k.a. Accountable US), a progressive advocacy group. Kyle Herrig, that group’s former president, also is the founder of the Congressional Integrity Project. According to NBC News, Herrig and the CIP are part of a “shadow campaign” defending President Joe Biden from investigations by House Republicans.
NBC News reports the CIP intends to target the Republicans investigating Biden, quoting Herrig:
“We’re going to leave no stone unturned. No one has done the investigative research we’ve done on these investigators. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…. We have a multimillion-dollar budget, and we’re staffing up with a team of researchers and communicators.”
A reasonable person could assume that Kuppersmith and the CfA’s complaint could be another example of a progressive advocacy group’s participation in the “shadow campaign” to defend Biden by targeting his perceived enemies.
The calculus being used is that Phillips is an enemy of Biden (something Phillips denies saying he is running to give Democrats an alternative as Biden as he feels the President is going to lose to Trump n November); and an enemy of Biden is an enemy of democracy.
The advocacy groups that Herrig is associated and possibly the CfA that has attacked Dean Phillips likely are funded by interests heavily connected to the Democratic Party Establishment, and possibly by the black money for which outfits like Arabella Advisors serve as a conduit.
Are the Axios stories a part of the shadow campaign to defend President Biden by going on the offense, attacking a political opponent?
