How the Biden Administration Is (Not Really) Handling Disinformation

Leah Feiger: It’s like, what a beautiful idea.

Jon Favreau: And now when you only organize people online and they only meet online and the debates happen online and everything, you’re going to lose trust. And so, I do think that there’s going to be, and where I’ve seen this already a return to sort of in-person organizing, in-person canvassing as a way to move voters because there’s something called relational organizing. Right?

Leah Feiger: Yeah. There’s a group that just put in 10 million to basically get your friends to tell you to vote.

Jon Favreau: Right. Because if you are a voter and you are on social media or you’re watching the news, let’s say you’re undecided, you don’t know who to trust, you don’t know what to trust. The only people you trust are the people that you know. And so, the people that become the most trusted messengers and the most persuasive messengers. And so, a lot of campaigns, sort of going back to that model, realizing that just fighting it out on social media is not going to win you the election.

Tommy Vietor: Well, then you can also pay fitness influencers in Orange County to post your stuff.

Leah Feiger: I think RFK has figured out the fitness influencers.

Tommy Vietor: He’s cornered the market on that.

Leah Feiger: He’s got them all. He has them all listed, every single number. He’s good to go.

Tommy Vietor: I came across a clip of him the other day where he was just on the floor at a gym, presumably between sets of bench or whatever he was doing, talking about Gaza and making a full-throated case for why the Israelis should be bombing the way they are. And I was like, “What is going on in this election? This is so weird.”

Leah Feiger: We cover RFK Jr. quite a bit, and every single time, it’s just shocking. My very favorite shark influencer, yes, that’s a very specific thing. Maybe not my favorite, but up there with the shark influencers—

Tommy Vietor: Where are they based?

Leah Feiger: Hawaii, scuba diving.

Jon Favreau: That makes sense.

Tommy Vietor: I follow the New England–based one.

Leah Feiger: Yeah, fair.

Tommy Vietor: I really do.

Leah Feiger: There’s a lot more.

Jon Favreau: Really?

Leah Feiger: Yeah. No, they’re good. But this one in Hawaii took RFK out on the boat.

Tommy Vietor: That’s smart.

Leah Feiger: He’s everywhere. He has figured out the social media game for this election. How do you guys think that Team Biden is doing social-media-wise for this election?

Tommy Vietor: They’re behind. I think they would be the first to tell you. The thing that really stuck in my head ever since I watched it was a couple weeks back, Trump went to an MMA fight in Newark or something. He walks into the stadium with Dana White, the head of the UFC, 16,000 people cheer for him. He daps up with Logan Paul and all these guys, and they’re all just taking content. And the MMA, the crypto bros, the kind of Paul Brothers, they have a very smart strategy to find those people, talk to them on their channels, the NELC Boys, whatever. Some of your listeners probably never heard of it, but they’re like YouTube pages with millions and millions of followers, and they’re making a concerted effort to reach young men in particular. And I think the Biden folks, it’s a lot harder when you’re president. It’s a lot more earnest stuff about policy, $35 insulin.