My investigation (so far) into Claim that Bernie's NC campaign was sabotaged by HRC moles (Now w/ New Niko House video)

UPDATE: Niko House's newest video has just been posted so I am putting it here. Slicker than the prior ones:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AghiFAuHMJI]

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For those of you who do not know to what my title refers, please check out this short essay by fentress. It's not completely accurate on the specifics, but the gist is this: Niko House, President of the Carolina Students for Bernie Sanders, has alleged in a series of three YouTube videos, in which he accused Aisha Dew, a paid Sanders' campaign staffer and the North Carolina State Director at Bernie Sanders for President of being a DNC or HRC mole, who deliberately sabotaged the efforts of Bernie's North Carolina campaign, by cancelling events, creating a rift between the Sanders' campaign and Rev. Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP and the leader of the Moral Mondays movement, refusing to meet with local politicians who wished to endorse Bernie, and generally making it more difficult for volunteers to get Sanders' message out.

I spoke to Mr. House on the phone briefly today (about a half hour). He's a passionate young man, speaks very rapidly (much as he does in the videos) and skips from topic to topic quickly, which sometimes made it difficult for me to follow him. However he did relate to me several specific claims about Ms. Dew that I have tried to research on my own while awaiting further documentation as to what she did. Some of these are in the nature of guilt by association, but all things considered I thought it worthwhile to provide a record of them.

1. Tweeted enthusiastically regarding Clinton at the DNC Democratic Debate on November 6, 2015 at Byrnes Auditorium at Winthrop University.

Here's that tweet with her caption: "@HillaryClinton enters the room. It's Electric!"

What strikes me as odd, as I'm sure it does you is how she wrangled an invite to the event, since these debates were invitation only. What is also odd, of course is her enthusiasm regarding a candidate against whom she would be working to defeat one month later in North Carolina. For the record, I found no corresponding tweet by her regarding Bernie's entrance on the stage that night.

Again, perhaps she just loved seeing Hillary, despite being an ardent Sanders' supporter, or at least someone willing to work for Sanders. That said, the next image is also questionable, her adoration of ...

2. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the DNC

On January 24, 2013, she shared the following photograph and post from DWS on her Face Book Page:

Now considering that everyone in the Sanders' campaign knew or should have known that DWS was an HRC supporter and was using everything in her arsenal as head of the DNC to see that Bernie would lose, this is a very strange item to find on the FaceBook page of any high profile staffer for Sanders, or at least I would think so. But perhaps not so strange considering that Aisha Dew had met DWS and taken a selfie with the Chair of the DNC as you can see for yourself, below, on on or about November 8, 2015, a month before starting her job with Bernie. In any case it was posted less than 48 hours after attending the DNC debate in which she was so excited to see Hillary, and taken on the campus of Winthrop University, which suggests it may have been taken the same day as the debate.

Ms. Dew is the President of her own political consulting firm, The Dew Group. Maybe she is just trying to stay on everybody's good side. After all, business is business. The trouble is, that Niko House claimed to me that Ms. Dew was responsible for the rift between the Sanders' campaign and Reverend Barber (one that ultimately involved Daily Kos), when he said she sent an email out to various volunteers and field offices claiming that Rev. Barber did not want Sanders supporters to attend his February 13th March:

Yesterday I woke up to a shocking email from the State Coordinator for North Carolina for Bernie Sanders. It put the brakes on three weeks of work organizing to bring Bernie supporters together for HKonJ, the Mass Moral March, tomorrow. Aisha Dew wrote: “Please take down all HK on J events from social media. Rev. Barber does not want us to attend the event. He asked us to take the event down off of all social media.”

Many at DKos claimed this person was a troll, and that the Sanders' campaign in North Carolina had done no such thing.* I have asked Niko House to please dig through archived emails to find this one. However, in the meantime, I found corroborating evidence that someone in the head office of Sanders' North Carolina campaign had indeed ordered that all references to Rev. Barber's event be taken down. Furthermore, the order was given that all buses the campaign had agreed to provide to Sanders' supporter as free transport to Raleigh for that event also had been cancelled. Here are the screenshots of Facebook posts from three field offices that Ms. Dew set up in Brunswick County, Wilmington and Western North Carolina that support Mr. House's version of events:

Brunswick County:

Wilmington:

The identical first two sentences are found in both the Brunswick County and Wilmington field office FB posts: HKonJ EVENT CANCELLED. This Event is being cancelled as the NAACP no longer wants Bernie Supporters at the event. These FB posts from Sander's field offices are also consistent with the claim made by the Sanders' volunteer quoted in the Daily Kos diary of February 17, 2016 in which she claimed Dew sent an email to her and others informing them that Rev. Barber wanted no Sanders people at his march:

Aisha Dew wrote: “Please take down all HK on J events from social media. Rev. Barber does not want us to attend the event. He asked us to take the event down off of all social media.”

All three are also consistent with what I found in this Facebook comment thread to a post on the FB page of Western North Carolina for Bernie Sanders

The most telling comment is by whoever wrote this on behalf of "The Western North Carolina for Bernie Sanders" office:

All official organizing events for the HJonK march on the bernie campaign site's Events map have been deactivated. This is across the map and effects every bus and caravan event that was listed on the campaign site. Whether the NAACP claims it is true or false the Bernie campaign has responded to something by deleting all events. All such events are still up on the Hillary campaign site. I can not sort out truth from fiction but I do know a big ole fat monkey wrench when it starts grinding gears to toothless.

This is almost exactly to what Niko House told me over the phone today regarding the clusterf#$% that occurred between the Sanders' campaign and Reverend Barber. It could not have been more damaging to the campaign from a PR standpoint and from the standpoint of demoralizing volunteers, many of whom had been long time Moral Monday's participants. I find it difficult to believe that this was accomplished without the knowledge of the Director of Bernie's campaign in North Carolina, Aisha Dew. You are free to draw your own conclusions, of course. But it is either representative of massive incompetence from a political operative who is a former Chair of the Mecklenberg County Democratic Party and a veteran organizer and director of many political campaigns, or it was a deliberate act to harm Bernie's chances in a critical primary election.

As soon as I fond out more, whether from my own digging or from materials provide by Mr. House, I will update you all on this story. In the meantime, it seems that there is more than enough smoke regarding Niko House's allegations of misconduct to suggest there very well be a fire burning within the highest reaches of Sanders' staff, and not only in the North Carolina campaign headquarters, but possibly other states as well that have not yet voted.

* I have since seen the emails she described in her post. She is not a troll.

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Videos, pictures, no way in hell I can replicate this diary on FB. Twitter - forget it. Thanks anyway.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Steven D's picture

I give you a Creative Commons license to do whatever you need to do.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

I assumed, when I heard about this, that something like a mole or agent provocateur did this: sure didn't sound like the real Sanders campaign. I'm glad someone is looking at this. I think these kinds of tactics deserve a spotlight: even if an individual is in the glare: its the behaviors and tactics that deserve to be called out. sorry to see someone may be so false, and so unrelated to a real Democracy. When individuals behave this way among private relationships, its a marker for character disorder diagnosis: now its a political skill . . . very sad and amoral.

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lunachickie's picture

I have a feeling this shit and more is going on in a lot of places. Ya, but work hard and play by the rules! (facepalm)

I'm almost tempted to say, when I see stuff like this (and I completely expected to) I think Sanders ought to run as an indie if he gets screwed out of the Democratic nod. If nothing else, that would be daring TPTB to steal that election like they stole 2000, and they're probably just dumb enough to try it a second time (past success sometimes breeds arrogance).

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SnappleBC's picture

I have a feeling this shit and more is going on in a lot of places. Ya, but work hard and play by the rules! (facepalm)

Nowadays I am very serious when I say that if I want to know what's going on in the American government I'll get better information from House of Cards than I will CNN. It isn't just politics either. A close acquaintance of mine does accounting for quite a few mid-size charities and non-profits. Let's just say that according to him it isn't a pretty picture.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

gulfgal98's picture

I am beginning to think that House of Cards is a documentary, not a drama.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cassiodorus's picture

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Alison Wunderland's picture

Or know anyone in the local NAACP there to get more details?

Good work, Steven. Thank you for keeping this alive.

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Steven D's picture

Called it a lie at the time. So not sure how much more he can't tell anyone. And I wouldn't expect he would talk to me about it, a complete stranger that doesn't live in his state. But, who really knows anymore.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

chuckvw's picture

I haven't here in a while. I was part of the original group and I'm glad to see how the site has grown. Markos is no doubt helping.

I saw how badly this story got bashed over at daily-never-a-discouraging-word. Glad to see you are pursuing it, Steven.

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You should only listen to both sides when one side isn't totally full of shit. -Jim Jefferies

flowerfarmer's picture

HRC is willing to do ANYTHING to win the prize.

I agree that Bernie should run as an independent WHEN he is shut out at the convention.

Can we say balls-to-the-wall here without offending anyone?

Great job, Stephen, and i agree with DallasDoc to tread carefully until more is absolutely clear.
Remember the fiasco with Bush's military records.

I am still cruising at TOP to support BNR but it is boring there now.

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kharma's picture

there are still so many pro-Sanders diaries every day Smile
It has got to be eating at them that anyone other than Hillary worshippers still have a presence. I'm still hitting the diaries and rec'ing them up but commenting is pretty rare. Also, it's nice that in the morning the first place I go for some fresh perspective is caucus99percent.com
when I used to feed at TOP.

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

Alphalop's picture

But don't spend much time there anymore to be honest outside of dropping an occasion truth bomb on a Clintonite's post until I get banned.

Right after I always have to come here to remind myself that not everyone on the intertubes isn't an asshat though. Smile

Seriously, this last Primary has sent a very clear message to me, that the democratic party is just as bad as the one I left, they just put a prettier face on it.

If/when the party nominates a Hawkish, pro death penalty, pro fracking candidate they have lost me.

Those are some of the biggest reasons I left the Republican party and now I see on GOS the same attitudes, policies and lack of tolerance for a differing opinion as I ever did on any RWNJ site.

The Democratic party isn't a progressive party with a liberal agenda anymore, it's where all the Republicans went that were conservative but didn't necessarily care about all the God and Guns crap that comes with RNC membership...

They started co-opting it in the 80's and never let up and this cycle just affirms my suspicions.

If they really supported the positions they claim to hold then they would have been backing Sanders like MAD instead of trying to smother his candidacy in it's crib...

If they succeed I will not only not vote for HRC, I will no longer vote D in the down ballot races either unless I am sure they are solid progressives.

Fuck Party loyalty.

Loyalty goes both ways, which is something those assholes at the DNC should have figured out in 2012/2014....

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

I sent a message to you about people here who might be willing to talk. Will send another private message. I agree that it is one thing to investigate - because anytime a campaign makes a blunder, we all need to learn lessons to improve. Was it incompetence, was it deliberate? No matte what, while the campaign goes forward, volunteers need to know facts to avoid the kind of situation that happened here in NC. It was just really one that created bad feelings between groups that should have been strong allies.

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DawnN's picture

I'm in western NC and was very aware of a change when the "official" campaign people came in. No facts, sadly, but lots of stuff to set off my WTF meter. Lots of deflection when I asked questions. My direct link to Rev. Barber's inner circle is a fierce Hill supporter, so I didn't feel it wise to go there. Ditto with personal contacts at TOP, who quickly shut down any discussion. Now I worry about the Wisconsin caucus.

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I am no longer sure how to deal with "fast breaking" information and consider all US sources of news to be apt to be baldfaced fiction.

I figured someone would set me straight if Mr. House were a wingnut or a liar after someone linked some of his stuff to FB, a medium whichI no longer trust either. It's owned by a 1%-er whose character was very likely more accurately depicted by a movie than he'd ever like to have had shown.

I'll keep watching Nico's stuff, as well.

Be well and thanks, again.

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******************************

Muerte al fascismo. Muerte a la tiranía. colapso total de los que promueven tampoco. A la pared con el unico porciento%

Borkrom's picture

Thank you so much for all this research, your efforts and sharing it with us.

Makes for a good story (maybe a book), but is sad (not surprising) if this is truly the case of "Party" suppressing the will of the people.

By the way, you are a bull bog (compliment and praise for all your work); remind me to stay on your good side Smile

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Niko is a persuasive speaker, but he intersperses vast and vague generalizations among his citations of facts, which helps his rhetoric and social media success but doesn't do much for his fundamental argument. Aisha is not a "mole". She is not a "Hillbot." She is the former chair of the Mecklenburg Democratic Party who has years of experience running campaigns. She has more experience than Niko, and more credibility with Charlotte Dems. When she took the job with Bernie people took notice because she is a powerful political figure, a thoughtful intellectual, and yes, because she has been supportive of Hillary in the past. That doesn't make her a mole or a saboteur. It makes her a person of integrity who has put her best efforts to running a campaign for Bernie in a (currently hostile) NC climate. She absolutely supports Bernie and has made innumerable tweets and posted pictures to that effect. To single out a couple of tweets or pictures with The Democratic Chair is paranoid and myopic. Of course she has posed with the Democratic Chair. She herself was the Democratic Chair. It's the world she inhabits. No, it sounds to me like Niko is personally upset because of his work for the Valentine's (HKonJ) March and his desire to be more of a leader in the Bernie campaign than he was asked or hired to be. Niko needs to see that Aisha is not the enemy. Hillary is not even the enemy. We can all champion Bernie and still be reasonable people.

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I put the Link for the Campaign filing for April below. She collected almost $6000 in april. Thats more than a lot of staff who do GOOD work for the campaign! Did she get a job in another state? I hope just sitting around not loosing anothert state.

I thought Niko House wasgetting her fired. I'm stopping my contributions.

http://docquery.fec.gov/pres/2016/M4/C00577130/B_PAYEE_C00577130.html

It's been so long I don't know if anyone will see this, so please comment.

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