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Report: Well-connected Democrats, ex-Obama staffer ‘planted’ at Biden town hall

ABC News did not disclose the participants’ well-established political affiliations.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Well-connected Democrats, including a top Obama-Biden campaign aide and the wife of a former Pennsylvania State Senate candidate, were identified by Fox News as participants in a town hall meeting with Presidential candidate Joe Biden held last Thursday.

ABC News, which hosted the event, did not disclose the participants’ well-established political affiliations.

The town hall format is intended to provide an opportunity for average citizens and undecided voters to question a candidate and speak about the issues on the ground.

According to his LinkedIn profile, one participant, Nathan Osburn, worked on “high-profile media inquiries” for the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign, “helping secure and publicize high-profile newspaper endorsement.”

Osburn went on to work in the Commerce Department under the Obama-Biden administration and is now an employee at Google.

ABC News identified him as a “Democrat,” but did not mention his work with the Obama-Biden campaign and administration.

Another participant, Miele Haeck, was identified by ABC as a “first time voter” and physical therapist from State College, Pennsylvania. ABC News did not identify her as having any party affiliation.

But Haeck’s husband, Ezra Nanes, ran in a much-publicized campaign for the Pennsylvania State Senate as the Democratic candidate.

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When Fox News reached out to ABC News for comment, they referred to moderator George Stephanopoulos’s opening remarks at the beginning of the town hall.

“Some are voting for [Biden], some have said they’re voting for President Trump, some are still undecided, and we’re going to try to take questions from as many as we can tonight,” Stephanopoulos told the audience.

Last month, The Washington Free Beacon revealed that two of the participants in Trump’s town hall were presented as uncommitted voters, when in reality they had openly written about their dislike of Trump on social media.

Philadelphia preacher Carl Day was identified by ABC News as an “uncommitted voter,” but tweeted before the event that he “never once supported Trump and won’t now. What I will do is call them out of their foolery.”

Another participant, Kutztown University professor Ellesia Blaque, publicly identifies herself as a “liberal Democrat on Facebook.” In January 2019, she tweeted that she’d love to volunteer for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

She has a long Twitter history of tweets criticizing Trump, who she referred to as “a f—ing moron,” a “pig” and “pathetic.”