Fake Article Claims Sen. Warren Endorses Bernie Sanders


A news story, which seemed to be from the New York Times, was circulating on Monday, the day before the Super Tuesday primaries. The story claimed that Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic Party nomination. The story was hosted by Clone Zone, a website that is designed to allow users to make clones of well-established websites.

This morning, the New York Times posted an article that denounced the article as a fake, but not before it received 50,000 views and 15,000 shares on Facebook, according to Clone Zone. New York Times editor Matthew Purdy said:

“An article circulating on social media tonight that is made to resemble a New York Times story and says Elizabeth Warren endorsed Bernie Sanders is a fake and has no connection to The Times.”

The article received much attention on Twitter and Facebook before it was removed and corrected by the New York Times. It is intriguing to wonder how many of it’s viewers will not see the correction going into primary voting on Super Tuesday. The person who posted the fake article understood what a huge show of support an endorsement from Senator Warren would be for Bernie Sanders ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries.

Sen. Warren has yet to endorse a presidential candidate, although many on Twitter have called for her to support Bernie Sanders, saying that Senator Warren would be a good running-mate for the Sanders’ campaign.

An article from Politico by Annie Karni and Gabriel Debenedetti expects that Senator Warren is:

“…expected to play the role of peacemaker in the Democratic Party at some point in the months leading up to the convention…”

The article explains that Senator Warren has a lot to gain by waiting to endorse a Democratic nominee as we come nearer to the Democratic National Convention. Sen. Warren’s offices have been in touch with both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign. The Clinton campaign understands what is to be gained from her endorsement, and seemingly elevated her top issues, tax code fairness, Wall Street regulation, and student loan debt, in order to gain Sen. Warren’s support.

Bernie Sanders has expressed his support for the Massachusetts senator many times during his own campaign, and it does seem that the issues that Sanders is focused on align more with Sen. Warren’s top issues.

Both candidates have campaigned heavily in the Senator’s home state, and it seems that Sen. Warren is holding her endorsement for the candidate who will best represent and support her top issues. As one of the most popular U.S. Senators, her endorsement is sure to be valuable to whichever candidate earns it.

Featured Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons license.