A staffer from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign who specialized in opposition research on Bernie Sanders is joining the Vermont senator’s 2020 campaign.
Tyson Brody, former deputy research director for Clinton’s campaign, will direct Sanders’s research operation, the senator’s campaign manager Faiz Shakir confirmed to Intelligencer Wednesday.
“This campaign will comport itself according to the values of Senator Sanders, which means we will not engage in mudslinging or character assassination. That said, one of the reasons we hired Tyson is to prepare this campaign for whatever false accusations and allegations are leveled against us,” Shakir said in a statement. “Most importantly, Tyson’s work on this campaign will help us educate voters about the issues, policies and stances that the Senator has taken over the course of a lifetime fighting for working people.”
Brody is the first staffer to hop from Clinton to Sanders after their heated battle for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, according to Intelligencer. He will bring with him his experience doing self-research for Clinton as well.
“It’s a really smart move by the Sanders campaign. Tyson literally wrote the book on Bernie’s oppo,” one of his Clinton campaign coworkers told Talking Points Memo.
Clinton never used its opposition research on Sanders for negative paid advertising during the 2016 race, according to Intelligencer.
Brody reacted nonchalantly to the Intelligencer’s story on his hiring Wednesday.
“Soooooooo I did a thing,” he wrote in a tweet with a link to the story.
Brody’s acquisition comes on the heels of the Sanders campaign hiring David Sirota as a top communication aide and speechwriter. Sirota wrote an opinion piece in 2013 headlined “Let’s hope the Boston Marathon Bomber is a white American.”
Sanders’s campaign had the biggest first-day fundraising haul until former Democratic Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke entered the race on March 13. Sanders raised $5.9 million in 24 hours, while O’Rourke raised $6.1 million. O’Rourke’s donors gave more, but Sanders had more donors.
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