If you’ve checked out billionaire Michael Bloomberg‘s Twitter account lately, you might be under the impression that he dominated Wednesday evening’s Democratic debate.
Bloomberg on Thursday released an edited clip that purported to show his fellow candidates struggling to answer whether they had built a business like the former New York mayor.
Actual video of the incident was much less impressive, with Bloomberg only pausing for one second before going on to defend his history on Wall Street. At no point during the debate were any candidates dumbstruck by Bloomberg. In fact, Bloomberg appeared to be on the ropes for much of the evening.
While the video may have been an obvious satire to some given its exaggerated sound effects that included crickets, concerns over misinformation have been at an all-time high since the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 election.
And with a new report from the New York Times stating that the U.S. intelligence community has obtained evidence showing that Moscow is looking to repeat its actions this election, concerns have reached a fever pitch.
Bloomberg’s campaign has since defended the video as “tongue in cheek,” but many on Twitter pushed back on the billionaire candidate and even compared his actions to those of President Donald Trump, who has also received criticism for releasing edited videos.
Earlier this month, Facebook and Twitter declined to remove an edited video posted by Trump that showed Pelosi repeatedly ripping up the president’s speech during his State of the Union address, even though she only ripped the speech once after the address was over.
In response to Bloomberg’s clip, a spokesperson for Twitter told HuffPost that the tweet would likely be labeled as manipulated media under a new policy set to launch in March.
The video from Bloomberg is unsurprising given that the candidate has reportedly been reaching out to meme creators and influencers in an effort to appear hip to young voters.
READ MORE:
- Was Bloomberg owned harder on the debate stage or by Twitter?
- Buttigieg, Klobuchar come together to laugh at Bloomberg
- Bernie Sanders calls Bloomberg’s wealth ‘grotesque’ to his face
