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Far-left activist Shaun King, a vocal supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, and Rachel Maddow got into a Twitter spat on Tuesday, and when the MSNBC host accused King of lying, those taking side mostly took hers.
King tweeted that MSNBC and Maddow “reported that multiple ‘senior officials’ within the Democratic Party are interfering with the primaries” in an effort to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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“BREAKING: @MSNBC & @maddow just reported that multiple “senior officials” within the Democratic Party are interfering with the primaries to stop @BernieSanders,” King wrote. “They reported that the party has asked Bloomberg to drop out so that Biden would have an easier time against Bernie.”
Maddow responded, “What? No. I didn’t report any such thing.”
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The controversial King then shared a clip of MSNBC’s Super Tuesday coverage.
“It’s striking to hear [NBC News reporter Josh] Lederman say that the Bloomberg campaign is experiencing intense pressure from multiple sources inside the Democratic party that he needs to quit,” Maddow said in the clip.
MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the clip shared by King, Maddow wasn’t reporting the news, but quoting a colleague – and she called the report surprising. The MSNBC host also didn’t say officials are “interfering,” which King claimed. King, who has a history of being questioned for statements on social media, was not given the benefit of the doubt by critics.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow denied claims made by far-left activist Shaun King.
Political satirist and “No Things Considered” host Tim Young told Fox News that “it's time to stock up on popcorn” if the pair of outspoken liberals plan on bickering in public.
“It's hard to believe that Shaun King, who has basically been accused of piles of fraud by the left, is still even given any voice from that side of the aisle. Maybe this going so far over the ledge and getting Rachel Maddow, who herself is a conspiracy theorist, to shut him down will be the final nail in the coffin of his career."
“It's hard to believe that Shaun King, who has basically been accused of piles of fraud by the left, is still even given any voice from that side of the aisle. Maybe this going so far over the ledge and getting Rachel Maddow, who herself is a conspiracy theorist, to shut him down will be the final nail in the coffin of his career,” Young said. “Either way, it's very fun to watch the left go after their own.”
King was once a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter movement but fell from grace when his race was questioned and he was accused of being a Caucasian falsely portraying himself as black.
“I have been told for most of my life that the white man on my birth certificate is not my biological father and that my actual biological father is a light-skinned black man. My mother and I have discussed her affair. She was a young woman in a bad relationship and I have no judgment,” he wrote in 2015 amid reports that he misrepresented his race.
The ordeal earned King the nickname “Talcum X,” which was trending on Twitter as the spat with Maddow unfolded.
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Back in 2018, King was slammed for pushing a story about a state trooper sexually assaulting a woman that was discredited when police body camera footage did not corroborate the story. He eventually backtracked and deleted damaging social media posts in which he said the trooper committed "rape.”
For her part, Maddow is known for pushing far-left, anti-Trump theories that turn out to be false or overpromised. She dedicated substantial airtime after Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 to speculating about whether or not Trump colluded with Russia – and viewers began turning away when Maddow’s collusion theory was discredited by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report and testimony. Ex-MSNBC host Krystal Ball once blasted her former colleague for floating wild “Russian conspiracy theories” that blew up when Mueller didn’t substantiate them – but Maddow is still considered significantly more credible than King.
Critics quickly took to Twitter to mock King over the situation with Maddow:
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