(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Opinion: Briahna Joy Gray Is Detrimental to the Left [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-22 Briahna Joy Gray: “Biden can be ten times better than Trump… I’m not voting for him.” — 2023 Briahna Joy Gray, 38, is an American political commentator on Rising from The Hill, a former corporate lawyer, and political consultant who served as the National Press Secretary for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. She is also a contributing editor for Current Affairs and was a senior politics editor for The Intercept. Gray currently hosts a podcast on the social media site Callin, a branch of Rumble, backed by the right-wing billionaire entrepreneur David Sacks. Other “left-wing” commentators featured on the site backed by Sacks’ $12 million funding effort are Glenn Greenwald and Jimmy Dore, who are both well-known fake leftists. In 2020 after Bernie Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primary and endorsed Joe Biden, Gray refused to do the same. In response, Sanders distanced himself from her saying that “She is my former press secretary — not on the payroll.” In a statement on X, formally known as Twitter, Gray wrote: With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don’t endorse Joe Biden. I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #MedicareForAll, cancelling ALL student debt, & a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those. — Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) April 13, 2020 Gray also made another outlandish Tweet explaining why she would not support Biden: Issues Bernie (generously) never raised about Biden: - Credible sexual assault allegations - A pattern of unwanted touching - Burisma - Lying ab[ou]t civil rights record Issues which are relevant to Biden’s electability argument — (his only real appeal) — Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) Apr 12, 2020 Already, she sounds like a rabid right-wing conspiracy theorist. It is unclear why she is even still relevant to some on the left of the political spectrum. Tara Reade, the only woman who accused Biden of sexual misconduct presented no evidence. Every other woman who has worked with Biden in the past said no such harassment occurred. Former friends and acquaintances of Reade have described her as “manipulative,” “deceitful,” “very clever,” “a liar,” and a con artist who took advantage of their goodwill to extract money. In May of 2023, Reade defected to Russia and appeared on Russian media alongside a convicted Russian agent. Read claims she defected to Russia after she alleged Biden raped her because she felt her life was in danger in the United States. In that interview, Reade defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and praised Russia. Bottom line: Biden has no history of sexual misconduct or any serious allegations by any other woman. At this time, Reade has presented no concrete evidence that she was assaulted. She also has a shaky background that hurts her credibility. To call her allegations “credible” is disingenuous. With respect to the allegations of unwanted touching, Biden appears to be a touchy guy, which can make people uncomfortable. He has said he did not recall making people feel uncomfortable and that was never his intention. This is not a defense of Biden — he should be more aware of how he makes women feel. Biden himself made note of his behavior during a March 16, 2019 speech in Dover, Del., in which he said he was a “tactile politician.” “I always have been, and that gets me in trouble as well, because I think I can feel and taste what is going on,” he told the crowd. Admittedly a strange joke from Biden but Trump was credibly accused by multiple women at the time of sexual assault, so it does not make sense to let Trump win the 2020 election over this. Not to mention a judge recently said Trump raped E. Jean Carroll. With regard to Burisma — it is a well-known right-wing conspiracy theory. It is also known as the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory, which is a series of unfounded allegations that Biden, while he was still vice president, withheld a loan guarantee to pressure Ukraine into firing prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to prevent a corruption investigation of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the Burisma board. In reality, Biden leveraged $1B in aid to Ukraine to oust a corrupt prosecutor, not to help his son. With regard to Biden lying about his civil rights record — it is true that in the past, Biden has overstated his activism. He has also sometimes conflated actions taken as a college student and said they took place when he was in high school. Overall, The Washington Post said he was worthy of at least Two Pinocchios with regard to overstating his activism. The Washington Post defines Two Pinocchios as “Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual errors may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people. (Similar to ‘half true.’)” Biden should not overstate things or lie, obviously— but the choice was between Biden and Trump at that point. Gray knows that Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims over his 4 short years as president. It is not sound to let Trump win because Biden has exaggerated some of his past activism. Gray does not care about political outcomes — she appears to be an ideologue in a way that allows her to disregard the real-world consequences of elections. Cenk Uygur, lawyer, media host, and CEO of the progressive news and commentary show The Young Turks said Gray was in the “fake left.” Back in June 2020, Gray argued that Fox News is “more inclined to have a leftist on than MSNBC and CNN.” She also praised Tucker Carlson for the “anti-establishment viewpoint” he offers. Uygur plainly rejected Gray and anyone who suggests Carlson is a better ally to progressives than CNN and MSNBC. “Briahna Joy Gray, unfortunately, is one of the people that are now in the fake left,” Uygur said, grouping her in with Jimmy Dore, Glenn Greenwald, and Dave Rubin. Uygur went on to say: “To be fair to Dave Rubin, he started this whole thing. The fake left saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s just, I’m a classical liberal. I’m a progressive. But it turns out the right wing is right about everything.’ Okay? So that’s the shtick that they do, and they go on Tucker’s show, and they dance for him. So it’s disgusting. They’re not the real left, and here’s how you can tell: they never disagree with Tucker.” He also said Fox News is “wall-to-wall propaganda” and that when they book guests from the left it is “just a trick to get you to believe that the whole country agrees that Tucker Carlson is the most reasonable person in America.” Uygur said he shares Gray’s hate for centrist or corporate Democrats, “but this enabling the right wing is unacceptable.” He argued that Carlson uses rhetoric to appear populist when “All he wants to do is trick you into complying with the corporate agenda by pretending to be progressive on some issues.” “Tucker Carlson doesn’t agree with us at all,” Uygur said. “He uses the fact that most of the country agrees with progressives as a tool to sheep-herd them into right-wing talking points.” “For Briahna Joy Gray and all the fake left to help him pretend that he’s on our side while he actually agrees with the corporate agenda is disgusting,” he added. 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