Pranked? Pence Spox Denies Former VP Filed For Presidential Campaign

No, former Vice President Mike Pence did not file to run for president in 2024.

His spokesman, Devin O’Malley, quickly snuffed out early buzz stemming from a Statement of Candidacy form submitted to the Federal Election Commission in Pence’s name on Monday.

“Former Vice President Mike Pence did not file to run for President today,” O’Malley said in response to a reporter who tweeted Pence had entered the race.

The denial didn’t come fast enough, as some media outlets already went ahead and published stories announcing Pence filed with the FEC.

“Someone filed a Pence filing. But it wasn’t Pence, his spokesman says, suggesting it was a prank,” tweeted New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

Someone filed a Pence filing. But it wasn’t Pence, his spokesman says, suggesting it was a prank https://t.co/iGT4Ur4GS0

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 26, 2022

Despite what appears to have been a stunt, Pence said last month he is giving “prayerful consideration” to a 2024 presidential bid.

If he does enter the fray, Pence would be setting himself up for a clash against his old boss, former President Donald Trump, who declared his third campaign for the White House last month.

Prior to serving four years as vice president, a tenure which ended with what Pence said was Trump acting “reckless” on the day of the Capitol riot, Pence served as governor of Indiana and a member of the House of Representatives.

Ted Lieu Deletes Tweet After Getting Fact-Checked By Elon Musk

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) deleted a tweet Monday after getting called out by Twitter CEO Elon Musk for posting false information about the latest release of “The Twitter Files.”

The latest Twitter Files release showed that the Biden administration pressed the social media platform to suppress alleged COVID “disinformation” while promoting the White House’s preferred messaging.

“Dear @davidzweig: The tweet you cite is in fact misleading. People of all ages at high risk from COVID generally benefit from vaccines,” Lieu tweeted. “Prior natural immunity may last only a few months. COVID appears to be a leading cause of death for children.”

Musk responded to another tweet that stated: “@tedlieu The preprint you linked to has actually been re-written as a result of my critique because it is seriously flawed and inaccurate. You linked to the old version.”

Musk said, “Ted is linking to misleading data @CommunityNotes.”

Lieu’s tweet was subsequently deleted.

Well done @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/6rYa3xCtiF

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 26, 2022

The newest release of The Twitter Files came in a Twitter thread from reporter David Zweig.

The federal government reportedly “rigged” the COVID debate, “By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy,” as well as “discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed,” and “ordinary users,” according to Zweig.

The pressure to suppress certain COVID details while elevating a preferred narrative included officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“Internal files at Twitter that I viewed while on assignment for @thefp showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes,” Zweig tweeted.

Zweig later offered evidence that the push toward select COVID information was not limited to Twitter.

“It wasn’t just Twitter. The meetings with the Trump White House were also attended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others,” he tweeted alongside a screenshot of the companies involved.

The Twitter Files also cited examples of suppression by bots — automated intelligence that flagged certain content — while also outsourcing moderation to workers in faraway locations like the Philippines.

The contracted workers “in places like the Philippines, also moderated content. They were given decision trees to aid in the process, but tasking non experts to adjudicate tweets on complex topics like myocarditis and mask efficacy data was destined for a significant error rate,” Zweig documented.

In some cases, content was suppressed even when users cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) own data. In the example cited by Zweig, a bot initially flagged the tweet, with the post receiving many “tattles,” referring to reports by other users.

Dillon Burroughs contributed to this report.