The anonymous group behind a fake press release claiming the Service Employees International Union was withdrawing its endorsement of President Barack Obama said in a new press release Thursday that they found it “galling” for the SEIU to endorse “a man who has consistently served the interests of the richest 1 percent.”
Representing a group called The No War But Class War Committee, the man who impersonated SEIU spokesman Mark McCullough sent a copy of the press release to TPM and the National Journal’s Mark Ambinder a bit early “because, Ryan, we appreciate reporters who openly laugh at their sources during interviews and because, Marc, you were a good sport about it all.”
Since the email was sent from a generic Gmail address named after the group, I spoke with the man on the phone. He wouldn’t give up a name, but he called from the same Google Voice number listed on the fake press release and TPM has no reason to believe he isn’t the same individual we spoke with early Wednesday morning.
He said that the committee was an ad hoc group of like-minded individuals (he wouldn’t say how many) who are mostly based out of Washington, D.C. He said they were not a part of the Occupy D.C. camp but said they were about as affiliated as a group could be with an organization with no formal leaders.
Obama, the group believes, isn’t representing the middle class and didn’t deserve the SEIU’s endorsement, he said. Members of the group were frustrated that liberal groups are endorsing Obama a year ahead of the election and not just begrudgingly.
Here’s a copy of their press release:
On Tuesday night, we released a statement on behalf of rank-and-file members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announcing that their leadership’s endorsement of President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign had been withdrawn. At a time when millions of Americans are out of work, we find it galling that a working class organization would pledge its members’ time and money to electing a man who has consistently served the interests of the richest 1 percent.
In 2008, the SEIU leadership gave more than $85 million of their members’; money to Barack Obama and other Democrats – at the same time they eliminated roughly 10 percent of their staff, including dozens of organizers. Here are a few of the changes that money bought them:
A dramatic escalation of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with record-level
military spending.A president who promised the heads of the 13 largest banks that “I'm not out there to go after you. I'm protecting you.“
The largest number of immigrants deported in American history.
Billions of dollars in bailouts for banks even as social programs like Medicare are put on the cutting board.
The fewest number of federal prosecutions for financial fraud in more than two decades.
A Treasury Department headed by a man who aided and abetted institutionalized fraud on Wall Street.
A record number of foreclosures, with a federal assistance program designed more to help bankers than those being thrown out of their homes.
Barack Obama is already getting heaps of cash from his supporters on Wall Street as a reward for redistributing wealth from the productive classes to the idle rich. There's no need to give him or any other politician more of the working class' money – no matter who wins in 2012, they'll try to take it from us anyway. Instead, we recommend putting $85 million toward making real change in people's lives, not just hoping for it.
