Mark Zuckerberg Has Quietly Advised Buttigieg on Campaign Hires

[left-of-center2012]

Facebook Inc. chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has privately recommended several potential hires to Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, a rare example of direct political involvement from one of tech’s most powerful executives.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg sent multiple emails to Mike Schmuhl, Buttigieg’s campaign manager, with names of individuals that he might consider hiring, campaign spokesman Chris Meagher confirmed. Priscilla Chan, Zuckerberg’s wife, also sent multiple emails to Schmuhl with staff recommendations. Ultimately, two of the people recommended were hired.

The emails between Zuckerberg and Buttigieg have come to light as Zuckerberg faces unrelenting attacks from politicians from both parties over such issues as misinformation, privacy, election meddling and bias. Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee on Facebook’s impact on the financial services and housing sectors.

Zuckerberg used to make political contributions more frequently, including to former and current House speakers Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi in 2014, but he hasn’t made any political donations or endorsements to specific candidates in the 2020 election cycle. In June, he gave $5,000 to Facebook’s PAC, which contributes to both Democratic and Republican candidates.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-21/zuckerberg-offered-advice-in-hiring-to-buttigieg-in-rare-move?srnd=politics-vp

[dewsgirl]

1. NOOOO!

[brush]

10. Agreed. Mayor Pete should steer clear of him. He let the Russians use his platform in 2016 and...

seem to not want to prioritize securing facebook from it happening again. Not to be trusted, seems too right-leaning.

[dewsgirl]

11. He was doing pretty well, this will hurt him. People are so

angry about FB right now.

[Celerity]

33. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[dewsgirl]

40. Thank goodness. I was hoping he was smarter than that.

[Celerity]

42. +10000

[thesquanderer]

13. All Zuckerberg did was pass along resumes/recommendations for people who asked him to,

because they wanted to work for Buttigieg's campaign. At least according to the article. I'm no fan of facebook or Zuckerberg, but I don't see a problem here.

Please see my post #9.

[Hav]

17. It's a hopeless fight once people are on a roll

Thanks for the information but I fear it will get drowned out by the other noise.

[FreeState]

18. +1 there is no issue here

It’s likely he passed along resumes to any candidate if that’s what they wanted - it wouldn’t surprise me to see resumes were sent to all most the campaigns.

[brush]

21. Maybe you don't but facebook and Zuckerberg are very unpopular for many so it may turn some...

voers off. Mayor Pete is certainly not lacking people who want to work on his campaign so why even associate with this unpopular, right-leaning billionaire whose lack of attentiveness to the security of his platform allowed Cambridge Analytica and Russians to exploit it and help trump get in office.

Some voters might even think it was intentional.

[thesquanderer]

22. So Buttigieg shouldn't hire anyone who worked at facebook? (Serious question.) nt

[brush]

23. That's not the same as someone recommended by the right-leaning billionaire whose platform...

was used to help trump win.

[thesquanderer]

24. These facebook employees ASKED Zuckerberg for letters of recommendation.

So... should Zuckerberg not have complied? Or should Buttigieg have tossed the letters of recommendation into the trash because these were facebook employees?

[brush]

26. It's a tough decision. He's running for a job that requires tough decisons. He'll have to weigh...

if being perceived as associating with the unpopular Zuckerberg is worth votes he might lose.

No one said running for president would be easy. As you can see from the other posts on this thread, many are not ok with Mayor Pete being advised by Zuckerberg. That's just the way it is.

[thesquanderer]

28. re:"As you can see from the other posts ....many are not ok with...Pete being advised by Zuckerberg"

Yes, but as you can also see from the posts, many of these people didn't actually read the article, and didn't realize Buttigieg was not actually being advised by Zuckerberg (at least based on the article), but rather Zuckerberg was passling along recommendations on behalf of employees who asked for those recommendations because they wanted to work on Buttigieg's campaign.

But I'm glad you can see that the scenario presents a tough decision, and so not as black and white as it may have first appeared.

[brush]

50. Just found out Zuckerberg approached Mayor Pete unsolicited...

with recommendations for hires.

Unsolicited.

It might be innocent enough, or, who knows, maybe he's planting people on the Mayor's staff?

Unsolicited.

[thesquanderer]

51. Why would solicited be better than unsolicited?

Here are two scenarios:

1: Solicited

Pete: "Hey, Mark, do you have any recommendations for staff hires for me?"

2: Unsolicited

Mark: "Hey, Pete, I've got some folks here who said they'd like to work for you, and I think they'd be good. Can I pass their info along to you?"

What makes #2 worse?

(And I thought the article made it sound unsolicited all along, so I'm surprised at your "just found out.&quot

[brush]

52. That's only if you assume Zuckerberg doesn't have an agenda.

IMO he's untrustworthy and still refuses to totally prevent access to his platform by bad actors.

[thesquanderer]

53. Now you're assuming that the article's account is not the truth.

The article says that the employees approached Zuckerberg and asked for the recommendations to be sent (meaning Zuckerberg did not select them, they selected themselves).

Of course you can speculate that the article is wrong, which is possible, but then we're no longer discussing the story as put forth in the article. If I'm willing to accept the story as probably accurate unless shown otherwise, and you're not, then obviously we will not agree on its implications.

[brush]

54. Let's just say I don't trust Zuckerberg, especially since he's publicly said he's...

reluctant to take measures to ensure his platform is not used again by bad actors. Mayor Pete seems to be a good guy and I don't like that his name is being associated with Zuckerberg. It could cost him votes.

And I'll leave it at that.

[kcr]

55. He should have declined Zuckerberg's offer to advise him.

All the attempts to downplay this as typical middle-management office workaday are false.

[thesquanderer]

57. Yes, he could have said "anyone who comes with a recommendation from you won't get the job"

and that's a defensible position, though I remain unconvinced that it's necessarily the best one.

[kcr]

60. No....

Although he could do that if he wanted, though I doubt he would given what actually happened.

[thesquanderer]

62. Obviously that's not what happened. The question is whether that would have been...

...a better response.

[kcr]

63. Not necessary. All he had to do was send whatever form response

he has for CEO/Big Wigs when they want to give their input. Then go on with however he usually considers his hires with no input from Mark Zuckerberg.

[thesquanderer]

64. When I said "he could have said" I didn't mean he had to literally SAY it,

I was just describing the position, that he simply could have chosen to not hire anyone who came with a Zuckerberg recommendation. Please reconsider my post in that light.

[kcr]

65. I know

I'm trying to make the crucial point that there should be a hard wall between billionaires/CEOs/etc. and our candidates and elected representatives. And our President. They should not be able to swan on in with their lists, expecting that they will be accepted and acted on in any way. There's nothing wrong with hiring people with recommendations. That isn't even close to the same thing. This isn't about recommendations. This is about direct influence by powerful people. When a candidate accepts one of those lists and acts on it, that is a clear sign that they are open for business. Zuckerburg just installed two of his people into that campaign, and if Buttigieg were to win the Presidency, he'd have two people automatically in that administration. A President he knows is open to accepting more lists. That is not ok.

[thesquanderer]

66. It's a fair point. But it brings up the same question I asked earlier...

These facebook employees ASKED Zuckerberg for letters of recommendation.

So... should Zuckerberg not have complied? Or should Buttigieg have tossed the letters of recommendation into the trash because they came from Zuckerberg?

As I said, I'm not saying that saying he should toss them into the trash is necessarily a bad answer, but I'm not sure it's the right one, either. But it sounds like that would be the position you would take, right? Hard wall.

[kcr]

67. The fact employees asked to be on that list is irrelevant

No candidate should be open to accepting those lists. It's not what Zuckerberg did that's the scandal, here. Powerful people are always going to flex their muscles. Zuck could have thrown up a dartboard and used that to make the list. It doesn't matter. It's the fact that Buttigieg accepted it an acted on it. He showed he was open to accepting direct influence in that manner. He will bend his ear.

[Celerity]

58. it was two people, one never worked for Facebook, the other had not worked there in over 6 years

All they did was ask for their CV's to be passed on.

Neither are in policy positions at all with Buttigieg, they are both data analysts

It is an absolute nothing of a story.



Eric Mayefsky

Digital Analytics at Pete for America

last worked at Facebook almost 6 and half years ago

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmayefsky/


and

Nina Wornhoff

Organizing Data Manager - Pete for America

never worked for Facebook

she worked for a year and half at the philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative whose mission statement is to "advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy"

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninawornhoff/

Again Buttigieg’s team received more than 7,000 job applications between his breakout appearance on the CNN town hall in March (when I decided to support him) and his campaign’s official launch the following month.

[dewsgirl]

41. This morning it sounded like he was hanging out with

him.

[thesquanderer]

45. I only know what was in the linked article. (n/t)

[Celerity]

32. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[LenaBaby61]

2. Welp ....

[Celerity]

34. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[backtoblue]

3. Love Pete...

But Facebook's role in 2016's Cambridge Analytica psychological warfare was a privacy/data breach that targeted American citizens and basically fucked humanity...


Zuckerberg still hasnt tightened up privacy policies enough and is allowing fake political ads.

I would never trust him to be directly involved inside a campaign, even as an unofficial hiring advisor.

I love Pete, but I do not trust Zuckerberg or his company.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. Agree.

If he accepts Zuckerberg's advice it would be a bad move since the other Dems can criticize him because he has lost the high moral ground. Hard for him to be a stalwart for change when he embraces the methods that drive the swampy environment we're now fighting against.

[Celerity]

35. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[backtoblue]

46. Not directly involved

I dont see how this report is debunked though. It says what your thread does.

Zuckerberg and his wife forwarded resumes to Pete's campaign. Doesn't make them best friends. But Facebook has donated 36k to his campaign and Pete has some, albiet stretched, ties to a few board members.

I dont see it as something nefarious going on, but I am still uncomfortable with Zuckerberg having ANY more political power than he already does through campaign ads on FB. (No, sending out a resume on behalf of an employee is NOT being involved directly. Theres nothing wrong with that)

I dont like Pete any less for it. He's a great person with excellent leadership qualities that I admire.

Its a mountain made out of nothing. I trust Pete. I do not trust Facebook or Zuckerberg.

[Celerity]

48. They only forwarded them at the request of the FB employees themselves, they did not go headhunting

within FB for Buttigieg and Zuckerberg is certainly not working closely with Pete's campaign, as many within the Bernie twittersphere (some big names included) are spewing all over social media. The same types of people did the same smear job on Warren a while back, over her teaching job.

Gabbard's overall malignant influence on anything (especially as she has sworn to NOT run as a 3rd party spoiler) positively pales in comparison to the influence and nefarious disinfo campaigns run by the Bernie-friendly social media and regualt web media (Jacobin for instance.)

I am NOT speaking of anyone on DU, I am talking the external apparatus, some of it OFFICIAL parts of his campaign (Sirota being a perfect example.) I almost never look at Facebook, but I assume they are poison on that rathole as well.

Twitter is a pure cesspool. I have to laugh when I see anti-Sanders and anti-Gabbard people (which is a completely understandable and valid stance for them) who also happen to be Biden supporters push tweets by trolls like Hoarse Whisperer ( a known liar who has started shitstorms on here via false tweets such as the pure lie that AOC was attacking Pelosi at that climate sit-in, when all AOC did was tell the demonstrators that SHE HAD PELOSI's BACK, ffs) who (Hoarse) also push tweets by known pure scum conspiracy theorists like Greg Olear, Olear being notorious for, amongst other things, labelling BIDEN Handsy MacGee.

Here is the Hoarse Whisperer reweet of a bullshit Olear smear of Buttigieg (Olear smears the vast majority of Dems running for POTUS he is a big Gillibrand fanboy, and says Waren and Harris are the only two real ones left)




and here is Olear smearing Biden

Link to tweet

It is a full circle clusterfuck of shitbaggery.

[blm]

4. And Zuck hates Warren. This will be sad for me to watch going forward.

[Celerity]

37. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[2naSalit]

5. Looks like

fuckerberg has messed up Mayor Pete's campaign. I don't trust him for a second, he's too connected to russian oligarchs and should be seen as a pariah in our elections and personal lives.

[Celerity]

36. debunked

[2naSalit]

47. That's good...

I like Mayor Pete, don't trust FB oligarch one single bit.

[MontanaMama]

6. Hate to hear this.

Zuckerburg is up to no good. Count on that.

[Celerity]

38. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[Maven]

8. So Pete is Zuckerberg's backup plan to save his social engineering empire from Warren?

Pass.

[Celerity]

39. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[thesquanderer]

9. "guilt by association" is so common here, but this isn't even as bad as it sounds

Last edited Mon Oct 21, 2019, 01:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Buttigieg knew Zuckerberg and had done a Facebook Live event with him (actually before the campaign, but that would not be an unreasonable thing for a campaign to do anyway). Later some impressed-with-Pete facebook employees asked to be put in touch with the campaign. So the recommendation was initiated by the people who wanted to work for Pete, not by facebook/zuckerberg.

Question: If a facebook employee went to Zuckerberg and said, "You know Buttigieg, and we'd like to work for his campaign, could you please send a recommendation for me?" what should Zuckerberg have done?

From the linked article, which so many here seem to be commenting about without having read it:

A spokesman for the Zuckerberg-Chan family told Bloomberg News that the employees asked the tech mogul and Chan to recommend them.

“Having seen Mark’s visit to South Bend in 2017 and Facebook Live with Mayor Buttigieg, colleagues later asked Mark and Priscilla to connect them with the Buttigieg campaign as they were interested in joining,” spokesman Ben LaBolt said in a statement. Zuckerberg visited South Bend, Indiana, in April 2017 as part of his philanthropic work and got a tour from Buttigieg, that Zuckerberg live-streamed.

Zuckerberg, 35, and Buttigieg, 37, overlapped at Harvard, and Buttigieg was friends with two of Zuckerberg’s roommates. He was also one of Facebook’s first 300 users. But they were only introduced years later by a mutual Harvard friend.

[kcr]

59. It is not guilt by association.

If these people had gone directly to Buttigieg themselves and said hey, we like you! Can we work on your campaign? Entirely different, and the charge of guilt by association would make sense here. But that's not what happened. Even if they were the ones to plant this idea in Zuckerberg's head and asked him because I guess it's believable that it never occurred to Zuckerberg to approach a candidate in this way, he's so famous for never caring about politics. But it doesn't change the fact that Zuckerberg went ahead and did it. And then Buttigieg accepted and hired two of them. Nothing to see here.

[flamingdem]

12. Ugh. Sorry but I do not trust

Mayor Pete

[FreeState]

19. Read the article

The title isn’t so accurate

[Devil Child]

14. Oh no! Buttigieg is a "Facebook asset!!!"

[thesquanderer]

15. The word "quietly" in the headline puts an editorially negative subjective slant on the story...

I don't see any indication that there was anything surreptitious about it. Is facebook supposed to put out a press release when they send out a recomendation when an employee who would like to work elsewhere requests it?

I haven't seen anything that indicates that Zuckerberg chose people to recommend, nor that he specifically tried to keep it a secret.

[appalachiablue]

16. nyet

[backtoblue]

25. Heres a Vox article showing Pete's distancing from Zuckerberg

https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/21/20925445/mark-zuckerberg-elizabeth-warren-pete-buttigieg-2020-analysis

Its not negative of Pete, just some commentary

(Sorry on my phone and cant copy much)

[kacekwl]

27. I don't see anywhere that Buttieieg or his campaign

solicited help. An e-mail was sent to them . Did I miss something ?

[Kurt V.]

31. maybe. if zuck has his ear on hirings, what else.?

[Celerity]

43. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[jcmaine72]

29. Zuckerberg fancies himself a kingmaker.

The truth of the matter is that there's a greater chance of election tampering from this wannabe Machiavelli than the Russians. Woe to any politician who ever finds themselves in this man's debt. Woe to the American people.

Oh, BTW, this shitbird also met with Trump. Anyone else else curious about what they really talked about for 3 hours?

[Celerity]

44. debunked

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902

[jcmaine72]

49. My point about Zuckerberg sure wasn't.

I never mentioned Buttigieg, did I?

[Kurt V.]

30. zuck and buttigieg overlapped at harvard. 35 & 37 yo respectively.

[LAS14]

61. So???

[LAS14]

56. STOP IT!!! Read the post ( not mine) where all is explained.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287319902