An anti-Bernie Sanders column allegedly penned by Atlanta’s “influential” Democratic Mayor Kasim Reed ahead of Georgia’s Super Tuesday primary appears to have been “primarily written by a corporate lobbyist” and “edited by Correct the Record, one of several pro-Clinton Super PACs,” according to The Intercept on Friday.
“Sanders’ record is simply not strong when compared to Obama and Clinton,” Reed’s op-ed read, “both of whom have prioritized reducing gun violence in our cities and across our country.”
The piece continued:
But emails released from Reed’s office suggest that the mayor himself had little to do with the op-ed.
Indeed, Anne Torres, the mayor’s director of communications, told The Intercept‘s Lee Fang that “the column was not written by the mayor, but by Tharon Johnson, a former Reed adviser who now works as a lobbyist for UnitedHealth, Honda, and MGM Resorts, among other clients. The column’s revisions by staffers from Correct the Record are documented in the emails.”
Reed “provided verbal edits and feedback to Tharon, but other than that, no one from my office or the mayor’s office wrote this op-ed,” Torres said.
Neither Johnson nor Correct the Record, a Super PAC formed by Republican-turned-Democrat strategist David Brock, responded to Fang’s request for comment.
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