Armando Llorens, a contributing editor for Daily Kos, is under fire after posting several tweets smearing Nina Turner, a Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair. Llorens sent multiple tweets on August 20 calling Turner “f—ing stupid”. The most egregious tweet alleged that Bernie Sanders is paying Turner to have sex with him.
Update: Daily Kos has parted ways with Armando Llorens. He no longer appears on the Daily Kos staff page.
Turner, who was a key surrogate for Sanders in 2016, can regularly be seen with Bernie Sanders at campaign events.
Llorens’s tweets have since been deleted, but that didn’t stop Twitter user @QueenInYellow from taking screenshots and reposting them.
Editor at Daily Kos 👇 pic.twitter.com/CkR5lkKREp
— DSA Otherkin Caucus ❼ (@QueenInYeIIow) August 21, 2019
@QueenInYellow’s tweet was then amplified by Shaun King, a Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate who recently launched an organization working to flip the Senate to Democratic control.
Many Sanders supporters are now calling on Markos Moulistas, the Founder of Daily Kos, to fire Llorens. Llorens had appeared on the Daily Kos staff page, where he is described as a “mild manner lawyer” who writes about a variety of topics including the US Constitution, the Supreme Court, politics, and foreign policy.
Sanders’s Press Secretary, Brian Joy Gray, stated that the tweets were an example of “media bias” against Sanders.
Moulistas occasionally appears on MSNBC and it’s unclear whether or not Llorens’s comments will jeopardize his ability to do so in the future.
Sanders Supporters vs. Daily Kos
Bernie Sanders supporters have a complicated relationship with Daily Kos. In 2015 and 2016, Sanders regularly won the site’s biweekly straw poll by incredibly large margins. Despite these victories, Daily Kos didn’t endorse Sanders.
By March, the website endorsed Hillary Clinton in an effort to shift focus towards the general election. Around the same, Daily Kos began banning users who posted criticism not deemed “constructive.” As a result, many Sanders supporters left the site.
As 2019 rolled around, Daily Kos began conducting straw polls again. After Sanders didn’t win a February straw poll, Moulistas commented, “It’s painfully clear he doesn’t realize it, but he’s not winning shit this cycle.”
Recent polls show Sanders leading the field in Colorado and New Hampshire. Sanders’s strength as a candidate is really on display in Texas, where he leads President Donald Trump by a larger margin than any other Democrat. The winner of the February 4 straw poll, Kamala Harris, has seen her poll numbers sink since the second Democratic debate.
On March 4, Daily Kos posted another straw poll. Sanders won the poll with more than 50% of the vote. Moulistas accused Sanders supporters of cheating by voting multiple times. However, he never provided evidence to support this claim.
For the record, I did find evidence of people casting multiple votes — for “anybody but Bernie.” User “Dave in Arizona” stated that he cast four votes, spreading them around among candidates not named Bernie Sanders. Dave in Arizona also told others how they could manipulate the results by voting multiple times.
In July, Moulistas accused Sanders of being “afraid” of him, citing that Sanders was skipping the Netroots Nation conference where, Moulistas would be moderating forums with the Presidential candidates in attendance. Moulistas did not make similar accusations about Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, or Kamala Harris, all of whom also skipped the conference as well.
As reported by Daily Beast, Sanders had a scheduling conflict. The Sanders campaign said that the moderators “were not a dealbreaker.”
A request for comment from Moulistas has gone unanswered. I would ask Llorens for a comment, but he has blocked me on Twitter.
What do you think about Daily Kos ending its relationship with Llorens? Leave a comment below!
Absolutely! @Armandodkos should be fired!
100 percent!
I agree, Armando
Daily Kos is a biased joke. As 2015 and 2016 proved, they will push and back whomever the DNC Corporation tells them to.
Yep
Daily Kos = R.I.P !!!!
Why waste any time or effort talking about Daily Kos, they’re the opposition.
Yes,
He’s no reporter. Fire him.
He can go work for the National Inquirer.
The sooner the better.
disgusting comments by an employee of the DAILY KOS. Llorens should be fired.
I agree, Sheri.
This story about their comments about the Bernie Sanders campaign is reprehensible. This clearly shows who Daily Kos really cares about and who they’re working for – the Oligarch political class
I second your position, David.
It’s bad enough that the Right finds it so easy to throw dirt around, but for those who profess to be on the Left?
This is outrageous, coming from an editor, and being so crass and vile. And directed at a man who is trying to change things for the better for the average man!
Why not use your time and ‘expertise’ to go after the fool in the WH doing much damage to this country?
I am one of the folks who left Daily Kos because of the continuous, non-stop trash talking toward Bernie and his supporters. I voted for Bernie in the Dem Primary and will do so again in 2020. I have confidence that if there isn’t large scale media manipulation or outright rigging of the vote, Bernie is going to win. I know there are paid trolls working to discredit Bernie and his supporters as well as confuse the issue of democratic socialism and its adherents about the election.
I’ve always found DK hard to take-way too much agreement with RW garbage but in 2016, they outdid themselves. And for what? A candidate who got endorsements from straight up neocons? Gah!
“Sanders’s Press Secretary, Brian Joy Gray, stated…”
Come on guys, Bernie gets smeared enough with the anti-woman stuff as it is, you don’t need to obscure the fact he actually hired a woman for the role. Here name is Briahna Joy Gray.
Good catch. They’ve really gotten ugly since a few legitimate leftists showed up.
Absolutely. Fire his ass
At this point, all Sanders supporters should unfollow and block anythingKos
Yes, We should.
Agreed.
Yup
As long as this cretin works for the Daily Kos, I will not go anywhere near it.
Yes.
“The most egregious tweet alleged that Bernie Sanders is paying Turner to have sex with him.”
The correct context is that Armando thinks Nina is f#cking up Bernie’s campaign. That’s what he really meant.
“Paying you to fuck him.” Why defend someone so blatantly disgusting? He’s a damn editor ffs. He knew exactly what he was saying. If not, he really sucks at his job and should be fired. And if so, and he knew what he was saying, he really sucks at his job and needs to be fired.
Llorens needs to be fired!
Daily Kos is dead to me. Llorens is simply a reflection of it.
We should boycott the Daily Kos for hiring an editor who made this statement:
Armando Llorens, a contributing editor for Daily Kos, is under fire after posting several tweets smearing Nina Turner, a Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair. Llorens sent multiple tweets on August 20 calling Turner “f—ing stupid”. The most egregious tweet alleged that Bernie Sanders is paying Turner to have sex with him.
Daily Kos should immediately apologize to Nina Turner and end their relationship with Llorens.
At a minimum, they should do this. Anything less and they lose any credibility they might have which, in fact, is little enough.
Daily Kos is a biased rag. This whole outrageous exchange is emblematic of its underLYING principles. I don’t think they should fire this creep. They should hold him up as a shining example of what they stand for, and come clean that the president they really support is the one that hold the office now. They are not progressive, not just, not honest. Let them be transparent about their real agenda!
Yes!! What an unprofessional thing to do. This man has trump-level ethics and needs to be fired. Faux news can pick him up.
News without integrity is NOTHING without it.
Yes, he needs to be fired immediately.
YES, Daily Kos,should terminate all ties to Armando Llorens. Daily Kos, along with other news media have an obvious bias against Bernie Sanders, his, staff, and his supporters. Daily Kos is demonstrating the same conduct as corporate news media outlets desire to minimize and smear a candidate which they see as a threat to their revenue.
I’ve unfollowed Daily Kos, as of today. Hopefully, the management will see many others do this as well. There is no excuse fot this ugliness. No apology is acceptable. Revenue losses will get their attention. Currently, I’m seeking a list of advertisers & sponsors.
It hardly matters. Apparently Llorens is simply following Kos’ lead. The whole organization can kiss a$$. It seems they have become one more bought and paid for media outlet.
I will no longer follow the site until this person is terminated
Yes. And then Daily Kos should close its doors forever.
Yes, he should be fired. But, honestly, Markos has be ome such a tool hinself, the whokw site shoukd just shut down.
I left Daily Kos because of bias against progressive causes and Bernie Sanders.
Yes, if Daily Kos is paying this person, they should definitely be fired.
Stopped reading the Daily Kos. 2016 coverage had no journalistic integrity. And when in 2019, editors can openly show no journalistic integrity, it’s time to be honest, bulling, smearing and gaslighting aren’t the tools of real journalists.
Daily KOS, if you do not fire him for this kind of conduct, then you are irrelevant and it will be your own undoing. What he said is a disgusting personal attack and has no business in journalism. Is Llorens on drugs or drinking heavily or something? Because, if not, he has anger and self-control issues. What is he going to do and say next? And him as an attorney should know the legal ramifications for slander, and I really hope Nina and Bernie sue you over this. Firing him is the appropriate response for this kind of behavior. He’s a damn editor and knows exactly what he’s saying. It was intentional. Fire him or pay the consequences. Your choice.
If he’s not fired, nothing matters anymore
Most definitely! Not only fired, but also publicly apologize!
This is most definitely why black People are not lock in step with Hispanics.
Daily Kis you are a ruthless, spineless source. Only created by the Democratic establishment to look like a legitimate agency that lends support.
All a total lie!
Keep disrespecting Nina. A well respected black woman, and it’ll be a long time before the Democrats ever see a Presidential office ever again. Black folks aren’t going to stand for that kind of dirty disrespect. Disagree if you may! But dirty, and nasty lies, and or comments won’t be tolerated!
Bernie 2020
The level of disrespect directed at Senator Nina Turner is disgusting. If this is the kind of behavior Daily Kos condones, then I will be avoiding them entirely.
DK = Neoliberal Hacks. Yeah, fire his ass.
Looking at his user profile on the site, it looks like he’s mostly disappeared in terms of posting (most recent comments in early July and only 5 since February – 3 in July, 2 in April; similar inactivity for diaries). Overall it looks like he largely dropped away from the site in late 2017 with occasional drop-ins after that.
Sloppy management to not remove him from whatever position of trust he had when he was an active member of the community though.
I contributed more than 150 articles to DK, but the writing on the wall was clear when Markos Moulitsas issued his “Hillary uber alles” decree on March 15, 2016. I finally left due to the rabid partisanship, apologia for any and all crimes and human rights violations if committed by Democrats, the smug, sarcastic comments bashing my work. DK is not a progressive site. It claims its mission is electing “more and better Democrats” but has completely forgotten the “better” part. I now publish elsewhere, primarily Common Dreams, Counterpunch and Antiwar.com and am much better off for it. Editors sometimes ask me how I could have ever written for that cesspool of DNC shills called Daily Kos.
No doubt about it, the Daily Kos is a tool of the neoliberal Clintonian wing of the DNC. I have unsubscribed from them a multitude of times, but they keep popping up in my emails. When it comes to opinions in media outlets, those are expressed by a variety of “journalists” who are instructed to do so by the publishers. Markos. Markos and his minions can legitimately be called “trolls.”
Armando Llorens comments are disgusting.m Furthermore he offers no facts to support his outlandish claims(in a situation where no such accusations should be considered without incontrovertible evidence supporting them). Under the circumstances Llorens more than deserves to be fired; he should also be banned from any further participation in Dailt Kos’ activity & that of other media outlets mentioned.
Thanks! Are you on tiktok? If so add me!