theintercept--2020-02-20--The FBI Is Investigating Erik Prince for Trying to Weaponize Crop Dusters

after Congress accused Erik Prince of lying under oath and referred criminal charges to the Justice Department , an associate approached the Blackwater founder to offer help and commiserate about Prince ’ s potential legal jeopardy .
Prince , who once moved to the United Arab Emirates to avoid being caught up in a federal prosecution , immediately dismissed the associate ’ s concerns .
He was untouchable , he bragged , and would face no legal troubles .
“ Not under this guy , ” Prince said referring to President Donald Trump , according to a person with direct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is about to be tested .
Prince , an heir to a billion-dollar fortune who is widely viewed as a shadow adviser to the president , is under federal investigation for his 2015 attempt to modify two American-made crop-dusting planes into attack aircraft — a violation of arms trafficking regulations — two people familiar with the investigation told The Intercept .
The planes became part of private military services Prince proposed to sell or use in mercenary operations in Africa and Azerbaijan , as The Intercept has previously reported .
The investigation into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ several ongoing probes targeting Prince .
Another focuses on the allegations that he lied to Congress during the House Intelligence Committee ’ s investigation into Russia ’ s 2016 presidential election interference ; a third concerns a 2017 armed aviation proposal to the UAE , according to the Wall Street Journal .
The investigation of Prince coincides with heightened scrutiny of Attorney General William Barr , who has been heavily criticized for intervening in two other prominent criminal cases involving friends and associates of Trump .
The Prince investigations , and decisions about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are perhaps the most politically charged of all .
That Prince ’ s efforts to arm and sell the two American-made crop dusters are part of the FBI ’ s investigation into his activities has not been previously reported .
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment .
A lawyer for Prince also did not respond to a request for comment .
Prince ’ s connections to Trump reflect the netherworld of deniability in which he operates : He has no official role with the White House or Trump campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ association .
Prince donated $ 250,000 to help elect the president and worked to help his campaign dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton , according to the Mueller report .
Prince also worked closely with Steve Bannon , then Trump ’ s campaign manager , trying to shape Trump ’ s foreign policy and national security positions throughout the campaign .
After the election , Trump appointed Betsy DeVos , Prince ’ s sister , as his secretary of education .
Prince then met with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the incoming Trump administration and the Russian government , according to the Mueller report .
That meeting later became the focus of Prince ’ s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee .
The Mueller report described details of the meeting that appeared to contradict Prince ’ s sworn testimony and triggered the committee ’ s criminal referral to the Justice Department .
Prince has also visited the White House several times to pitch privatizing wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East , as well as how to confront Iran , according to two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Barr , the nation ’ s top law enforcement official , has faced extensive criticism for his efforts to oversee cases involving Trump ’ s advisers and associates .
Last week , after career prosecutors requested seven to nine years in prison for Roger Stone , a longtime Trump associate , Trump tweeted his disgust , calling the sentence “ a miscarriage of justice.
” Stone was convicted of seven felony counts of lying , obstruction of justice , and witness tampering related to a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had requested was in line with federal guidelines .
A few hours later , Barr overruled his line prosecutors , seeking a lesser prison sentence for Stone .
The move led the four career federal lawyers handling the Stone case to quit the prosecution , and one of them resigned from the Justice Department altogether .
More than 2,400 former Justice Department employees have since called for Barr ’ s resignation .
On Thursday , a federal judge sentenced Stone to three years and four months in prison .
Barr also appointed a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , D.C. , and recently brought in outside federal prosecutors to supervise the work of career government attorneys in several high-profile cases overseen by that office , according to the Washington Post .
Among the cases being reviewed are those involving former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Prince .
Mary McCord , a former senior Justice Department official during the Obama and Trump administrations who now teaches at Georgetown Law School , told The Intercept that Barr had already damaged the department ’ s ability to investigate politically sensitive criminal cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was released publicly .
With Barr stepping into the Stone and Flynn cases , whatever outcome the Justice Department announces in the Prince investigations will be subject to criticism about political interference .
“ It ’ s really troublesome , McCord said .
“ The approach to any case connected to Trump is now fraught given the appearance that the department is a tool for the president to wield in favor of his friends and against his detractors.
” In 2015 , Frontier Services Group , a Hong Kong-based logistics company founded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ firm to review the company ’ s legal exposure to violations of U.S. law on weapons sales and the export of defense services to foreign governments and militaries .
The attorneys concluded that Prince had likely violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations , known as ITAR .
The legal assessment , which was conducted by King & Spalding , also recommended that the American personnel at FSG report the violations to the Justice Department , which happened a few month later in 2016 .
“ The potential violations stem principally from conduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person , ” Frontier Services Group CEO Gregg Smith wrote to the director of the State Department ’ s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls , which regulates the export of defense articles and services , in a letter obtained by The Intercept .
In 2018 , an FSG spokesperson , responding on behalf of the company and Prince , told The Intercept : “ Any assertion that FSG or Mr .
Prince violated any laws in this matter is categorically false.
” It is unclear why the FBI took more than three years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two crop dusters .
Prince has long sought to convert the single-engine agricultural aircraft into light attack planes , which he believes can revolutionize how small wars are fought .
The two planes , manufactured by Thrush Aircraft in Albany , Georgia , were the first prototypes Prince built in an effort to create a low-cost air force for his vision of privatized warfare .
Prince has never been charged with a crime in the United States .
But his career as a private security entrepreneur has been marked by atrocities like the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in April 2004 and the Nisour Square massacre of 2007 , both of which gave rise to federal proceedings .
A civil lawsuit brought by the families of the American contractors killed in 2004 resulted in a confidential settlement ; a federal criminal trial against four Blackwater personnel for murder and manslaughter yielded convictions .
In each case , Prince escaped personal liability .
In 2012 Blackwater , under a new corporate name , ownership , and management , entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors and paid a $ 42 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trafficking and ITAR-related offenses .
Prince admitted no wrongdoing and walked away from U.S. government contracts but eventually lost his ITAR license .
Despite that , he has since gone on to provide or offer defense services in at least 10 countries , mostly in Africa and the Middle East , according to documents and people with knowledge of the various plans .

Last May, shortly after Congress accused Erik Prince of lying under oath and referred criminal charges to the Justice Department, an associate approached the Blackwater founder to offer help and commiserate about Prince’s potential legal jeopardy.
Prince, who once moved to the United Arab Emirates to avoid being caught up in a federal prosecution, immediately dismissed the associate’s concerns. He was untouchable, he bragged, and would face no legal troubles.
“Not under this guy,” Prince said referring to President Donald Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the exchange.
That assumption is about to be tested.
Prince, an heir to a billion-dollar fortune who is widely viewed as a shadow adviser to the president, is under federal investigation for his 2015 attempt to modify two American-made crop-dusting planes into attack aircraft — a violation of arms trafficking regulations — two people familiar with the investigation told The Intercept. The planes became part of private military services Prince proposed to sell or use in mercenary operations in Africa and Azerbaijan, as The Intercept has previously reported.
The investigation into the modified crop dusters is one of several ongoing probes targeting Prince. Another focuses on the allegations that he lied to Congress during the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russia’s 2016 presidential election interference; a third concerns a 2017 armed aviation proposal to the UAE, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The investigation of Prince coincides with heightened scrutiny of Attorney General William Barr, who has been heavily criticized for intervening in two other prominent criminal cases involving friends and associates of Trump. The Prince investigations, and decisions about whether or not to charge him, are perhaps the most politically charged of all.
That Prince’s efforts to arm and sell the two American-made crop dusters are part of the FBI’s investigation into his activities has not been previously reported.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Prince also did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo: Provided to The Intercept
Prince’s connections to Trump reflect the netherworld of deniability in which he operates: He has no official role with the White House or Trump campaign, but appears to benefit from the association. Prince donated $250,000 to help elect the president and worked to help his campaign dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to the Mueller report. Prince also worked closely with Steve Bannon, then Trump’s campaign manager, trying to shape Trump’s foreign policy and national security positions throughout the campaign.
After the election, Trump appointed Betsy DeVos, Prince’s sister, as his secretary of education. Prince then met with a Russian banker in the Seychelles in an apparent effort to establish a backchannel between the incoming Trump administration and the Russian government, according to the Mueller report. That meeting later became the focus of Prince’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. The Mueller report described details of the meeting that appeared to contradict Prince’s sworn testimony and triggered the committee’s criminal referral to the Justice Department.
Prince has also visited the White House several times to pitch privatizing wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East, as well as how to confront Iran, according to two people familiar with Prince’s efforts.
Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement official, has faced extensive criticism for his efforts to oversee cases involving Trump’s advisers and associates. Last week, after career prosecutors requested seven to nine years in prison for Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate, Trump tweeted his disgust, calling the sentence “a miscarriage of justice.” Stone was convicted of seven felony counts of lying, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering related to a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election; the sentence prosecutors had requested was in line with federal guidelines.
A few hours later, Barr overruled his line prosecutors, seeking a lesser prison sentence for Stone. The move led the four career federal lawyers handling the Stone case to quit the prosecution, and one of them resigned from the Justice Department altogether. More than 2,400 former Justice Department employees have since called for Barr’s resignation. On Thursday, a federal judge sentenced Stone to three years and four months in prison.
Barr also appointed a close colleague as U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and recently brought in outside federal prosecutors to supervise the work of career government attorneys in several high-profile cases overseen by that office, according to the Washington Post. Among the cases being reviewed are those involving former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and Prince.
Mary McCord, a former senior Justice Department official during the Obama and Trump administrations who now teaches at Georgetown Law School, told The Intercept that Barr had already damaged the department’s ability to investigate politically sensitive criminal cases when he mischaracterized the Mueller Report before it was released publicly. With Barr stepping into the Stone and Flynn cases, whatever outcome the Justice Department announces in the Prince investigations will be subject to criticism about political interference.
“It’s really troublesome, McCord said. “The approach to any case connected to Trump is now fraught given the appearance that the department is a tool for the president to wield in favor of his friends and against his detractors.”
In 2015, Frontier Services Group, a Hong Kong-based logistics company founded by Prince, hired a U.S. law firm to review the company’s legal exposure to violations of U.S. law on weapons sales and the export of defense services to foreign governments and militaries. The attorneys concluded that Prince had likely violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, known as ITAR. The legal assessment, which was conducted by King & Spalding, also recommended that the American personnel at FSG report the violations to the Justice Department, which happened a few month later in 2016.
“The potential violations stem principally from conduct of Mr. Prince, a U.S. person,” Frontier Services Group CEO Gregg Smith wrote to the director of the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, which regulates the export of defense articles and services, in a letter obtained by The Intercept.
In 2018, an FSG spokesperson, responding on behalf of the company and Prince, told The Intercept: “Any assertion that FSG or Mr. Prince violated any laws in this matter is categorically false.”
It is unclear why the FBI took more than three years to investigate Prince for the modification of two crop dusters. Prince has long sought to convert the single-engine agricultural aircraft into light attack planes, which he believes can revolutionize how small wars are fought. The two planes, manufactured by Thrush Aircraft in Albany, Georgia, were the first prototypes Prince built in an effort to create a low-cost air force for his vision of privatized warfare.
Photo: Provided to The Intercept
Prince has never been charged with a crime in the United States. But his career as a private security entrepreneur has been marked by atrocities like the murder of four Blackwater personnel in Fallujah in April 2004 and the Nisour Square massacre of 2007, both of which gave rise to federal proceedings. A civil lawsuit brought by the families of the American contractors killed in 2004 resulted in a confidential settlement; a federal criminal trial against four Blackwater personnel for murder and manslaughter yielded convictions. In each case, Prince escaped personal liability.
In 2012 Blackwater, under a new corporate name, ownership, and management, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors and paid a $42 million fine for a series of weapons trafficking and ITAR-related offenses. Prince admitted no wrongdoing and walked away from U.S. government contracts but eventually lost his ITAR license. Despite that, he has since gone on to provide or offer defense services in at least 10 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, according to documents and people with knowledge of the various plans.


theintercept--2020-02-20--Bernie Sanders’s Secret to Attracting Latino Support: Talking to Them

on Monday , New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stood on the sidelines of a soccer tournament eating elote .
De Blasio , who dropped out of the presidential race in September , had endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president the Friday before and spent the holiday weekend stumping for him in Nevada , stopping by the small tournament at a Las Vegas high school to test out a few Spanish phrases on the players .
One of many events dubbed “ Unidos con Bernie , ” the campaign-organized tournament was held on the the east side of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ population in the state and the campaign ’ s first Nevada field office .
To conclude the Presidents ’ Day festivities — which featured tacos , paletas , and a trophy for the champions — campaign staff and volunteers drove the few dozen young participants to nearby early caucus sites .
Danny Parra , a 19-year-old student who played in the tournament , told The Intercept that he ’ s voting for Sanders specifically because of the campaign ’ s consistent outreach .
He added that he doesn ’ t really “ follow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sanders because he was always seeing the campaign ’ s “ little stands ” on his community college campus .
“ I appreciate that we ’ re getting looked upon because that doesn ’ t happen really in presidential elections , ” Parra said .
“ I just think it ’ s really cool he ’ s looking out for us , trying to take care of us , like we have a voice too , like we may be small but every vote counts .
It ’ s just something I really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Though Sanders has polled favorably among Latino voters throughout the 2020 primary , his popularity with the electorate , which helped carry him to a wide popular-vote victory in Iowa , has surged in the lead-up to the Nevada caucuses — by one poll , he has over 60 percent of the Latino vote .
The campaign , which has knocked on more than 200,000 doors in Nevada in the past 17 days , is also getting organizing help from two major Latino groups .
Mijente and Make the Road Action , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their support behind Sanders with their first-ever presidential endorsements , and each has a significant ground presence .
And out of all the Democratic candidates running for the nomination , Latinos gave the most political donations to Sanders , contributing almost $ 8.3 million to the campaign in 2019 , according to an analysis of campaign finance data by Plus Three , a technology company .
The analysis , first reported by NBC News last week , found that 36 percent of Latinos ’ dollars went to the democratic socialist .
But Sanders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to win over Latinos in the state : the leadership of the powerful Culinary Union , which represents many Vegas casino workers .
The Culinary Union — aka Unite Here Local 226 — has been escalating its attacks against Sanders over his support of Medicare for All .
Those attacks initially singled out both Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren , both of whom have endorsed Medicare for All , but the fire has been trained solely on Sanders as the caucuses approach .
With English- and Spanish-language flyers , texts , and emails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Medicare for All would “ end Culinary health care.
” Then , following outcry from progressives , the union accused Sanders supporters of “ viciously ” attacking the group , saying that they were flooded with threatening phone calls , emails , and messages .
Two top Culinary officials shared examples of the kind of harassment they received with the Nevada Independent , but at least one — a commenter on a Nevada Independent article that referred to members of the Culinary Union as “ illegals ” — had also made anti-Sanders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ originally included in the article .
When asked for specific examples of harassment from Sanders supporters , union spokesperson Bethany Khan told The Intercept that most are with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department “ as we are in the process of filing a report , so not being shared at this time , ” adding that she has also begun to post some on her personal social media account .
At a presidential forum with Culinary Union workers on Tuesday night , Warren and Sen. Amy Klobuchar , both of whom are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last-minute pitch for their support .
Culinary secretary-treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline opened by talking about “ terrible attacks from Senator Sanders ’ s followers.
” Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg , who couldn ’ t make it to the event because of a CNN town hall , told the workers in a prerecorded video that he stands with them “ whether it is bullies online or bullies in the White House.
” In one of the most cringeworthy campaign moments so far , Klobuchar opened her address to the Culinary workers by telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ name is Amy , but when I took Spanish in fourth grade , my name was Elena.
” She added that she was given the name because she couldn ’ t roll her R ’ s .
There are no R ’ s in “ Amy , ” and the anecdote , which drew blank stares from the audience , was also relentlessly mocked online .
Warren leaned heavily into women ’ s rights issues , telling the audience , many of whom work as housekeepers , that the White House is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got a mess and you really need it cleaned up , you call a woman and get the job done , ” deploying an unusually gender-normative punchline for a candidate who has been highly conscious of the politics of her language .
After the event , Maira Acasada Tatum , a housekeeper at the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas , said she was probably going to caucus for Warren because of her stance on raising the federal minimum wage .
“ I have kids and go into work and only make $ 8 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , adding that she doesn ’ t know who her second choice is yet .
When asked about her thoughts on Medicare for All , she replied in Spanish that she didn ’ t understand it very well .
For the first time , Nevada is holding several days of early voting ahead of its February 22 caucuses in an effort to make the election process more accessible .
At these early-voting locations , where same-day registration is allowed , participants fill out a ballot using ranked-choice voting , selecting at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ top Democratic candidates .
According to the state ’ s Democratic Party , more than 36,000 people participated in the first three days of early caucus voting , and 56 percent of the people who turned out on Saturday were first-time caucus-goers .
On the final day of voting , Tuesday , a staggering 33,000 waited in long lines to caucus .
Only 84,000 total voted in the 2016 caucuses , which did not include early voting .
One poll , conducted by the progressive think tank Data for Progress , found that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support Sanders .
No other candidate made it out of the single digits .
And last week , a Morning Consult poll showed the democratic socialist with a staggering lead among Hispanic voters , jumping 10 points with the demographic the day after winning the New Hampshire primary .
According to the poll , Sanders had the highest support among the group at 48 percent , followed by Mike Bloomberg at 17 percent and a distant Joe Biden at 13 percent .
But a new Telemundo poll found Sanders and Biden in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Latino vote .
Biden had a narrow lead at 34 percent to Sanders ’ s 31 percent , with a margin of error of 4 percentage points .
Biden , who ’ s counting on black voters in South Carolina to save his chances at the nomination , has been struggling to win over Latino voters , which will almost certainly hurt his chances in states like California and Texas , two delegate-rich states with the largest Latino populations in the country , as well as in Nevada .
The former vice president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grapple with Barack Obama ’ s history of being the “ deporter in chief , ” as the head of the National Council of La Raza declared him in 2014 .
He ’ s received fierce backlash from immigrant rights activists and up until this weekend , repeatedly refused to apologize for the harm inflicted by the Obama administration ’ s deportation machine , instead implying that he internally opposed the policy .
Outside of a Las Vegas campaign event Tuesday , a group of activists confronted him for not committing to stopping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in an interview with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos on Saturday , Biden called it a “ big mistake ” to have deported hundreds of thousands of people without a criminal record .
“ We took far too long to get it right , ” Biden told Ramos , then adding , “ it was a big mistake ” and the administration “ took too long to get it right.
” Buttigieg , Warren , and Klobuchar also have teams dedicated to Latino outreach , but the candidates ’ efforts pale in comparison @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have backfired .
During an interview with Spanish-language station Telemundo last week , both Klobuchar and billionaire Tom Steyer couldn ’ t name the president of Mexico .
The Minnesota senator admitted that she didn ’ t know his name while Steyer said he “ forgot.
” ( Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also goes by the initials “ AMLO.
” ) With the caucuses just three days away , Klobuchar , a famously difficult boss , hasn ’ t filled basic positions , including hiring a “ Nevada operations director.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been to pump $ 14.7 million into the state and flood the airwaves with ads .
As for the Warren campaign ’ s Nevada field operation , a half-dozen women of color departed the 70-person team with complaints of a “ toxic work environment ” in the run-up to the caucuses , Politico reported .
According to the women , the problems within the campaign hurt their broader efforts to engage Latinos .
Spanish-language literature arrived late , “ there were too few Spanish-speaking organizers ” despite requests to hire more , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ constant battle to set up events in Spanish.
” “ Tío Bernie , ” as many of his Latino supporters affectionately call him , owes much of his success to the campaign ’ s outreach efforts .
His policy positions , particularly involving issues like health care and economic justice , contribute to the appeal , argued Deputy Nevada Field Director Michael Ramirez .
But the campaign made the decision to prioritize Latino outreach since the beginning , Chuck Rocha , a senior Sanders adviser , said , breaking with the traditional Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which typically means white and older voters — then scrambling for Latino support in the final stretch .
“ We started talking to people in Spanish here before we started talking to people in English , so to me that ’ s very intentional organizing showing the community that we respect them , that we ’ re going to be here , and that we ’ re not going to leave , ” said Rocha .
The Democratic Party ’ s decadeslong failure to activate Latino voters has created a self-feeding cycle of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t expect them to vote so they don ’ t bother asking them to , or at least not on the scale necessary for significant mobilization .
Latino voters , poised to be the largest nonwhite eligible voting bloc in 2020 , are crucial to winning the presidency and have been playing a key role in Sanders ’ s rise .
“ So I think that ’ s the key to our success , is that we knew that Bernie Sanders was popular with Latinos , ” Rocha continued .
“ But we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within the community , making sure that they knew everything about him so they can go tell their friends and their neighbors .
And that ’ s a big part of what you ’ re seeing today with this soccer tournament , there ’ s community-based events , which are key .
But community-based events alone will not win you the elections — spending lots of money to talk to lots of Latinos is how you win the elections .
”

Just before noon on Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stood on the sidelines of a soccer tournament eating elote. De Blasio, who dropped out of the presidential race in September, had endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president the Friday before and spent the holiday weekend stumping for him in Nevada, stopping by the small tournament at a Las Vegas high school to test out a few Spanish phrases on the players.
One of many events dubbed “Unidos con Bernie,” the campaign-organized tournament was held on the the east side of the city, home to the largest Latino population in the state and the campaign’s first Nevada field office.
To conclude the Presidents’ Day festivities — which featured tacos, paletas, and a trophy for the champions — campaign staff and volunteers drove the few dozen young participants to nearby early caucus sites.
Danny Parra, a 19-year-old student who played in the tournament, told The Intercept that he’s voting for Sanders specifically because of the campaign’s consistent outreach. He added that he doesn’t really “follow politics,” but became interested in Sanders because he was always seeing the campaign’s “little stands” on his community college campus.
“I appreciate that we’re getting looked upon because that doesn’t happen really in presidential elections,” Parra said. “I just think it’s really cool he’s looking out for us, trying to take care of us, like we have a voice too, like we may be small but every vote counts. It’s just something I really appreciate from the bottom of my heart.”
Though Sanders has polled favorably among Latino voters throughout the 2020 primary, his popularity with the electorate, which helped carry him to a wide popular-vote victory in Iowa, has surged in the lead-up to the Nevada caucuses — by one poll, he has over 60 percent of the Latino vote.
The campaign, which has knocked on more than 200,000 doors in Nevada in the past 17 days, is also getting organizing help from two major Latino groups. Mijente and Make the Road Action, an immigrant rights group, have thrown their support behind Sanders with their first-ever presidential endorsements, and each has a significant ground presence.
And out of all the Democratic candidates running for the nomination, Latinos gave the most political donations to Sanders, contributing almost $8.3 million to the campaign in 2019, according to an analysis of campaign finance data by Plus Three, a technology company. The analysis, first reported by NBC News last week, found that 36 percent of Latinos’ dollars went to the democratic socialist.
Top/Left: Chuck Rocha, a senior Sanders adviser, broadcasts from the soccer tournament to his social media followers. Center: David Crow displays pins from his Bernie Bus. Bottom/Right: Laura Becerra, the Latinx constituency organizer for the Sanders campaign, holds up the winning trophy for the tournament. Photos: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept
But Sanders does face a hurdle in his effort to win over Latinos in the state: the leadership of the powerful Culinary Union, which represents many Vegas casino workers. The Culinary Union — aka Unite Here Local 226 — has been escalating its attacks against Sanders over his support of Medicare for All. Those attacks initially singled out both Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, both of whom have endorsed Medicare for All, but the fire has been trained solely on Sanders as the caucuses approach. With English- and Spanish-language flyers, texts, and emails to its 60,000 members, leaders warned that Medicare for All would “end Culinary health care.”
Then, following outcry from progressives, the union accused Sanders supporters of “viciously” attacking the group, saying that they were flooded with threatening phone calls, emails, and messages. Two top Culinary officials shared examples of the kind of harassment they received with the Nevada Independent, but at least one — a commenter on a Nevada Independent article that referred to members of the Culinary Union as “illegals” — had also made anti-Sanders comments, a fact that was not originally included in the article. When asked for specific examples of harassment from Sanders supporters, union spokesperson Bethany Khan told The Intercept that most are with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department “as we are in the process of filing a report, so not being shared at this time,” adding that she has also begun to post some on her personal social media account.
At a presidential forum with Culinary Union workers on Tuesday night, Warren and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, both of whom are polling abysmally with Latinos, made a last-minute pitch for their support. Culinary secretary-treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline opened by talking about “terrible attacks from Senator Sanders’s followers.” Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who couldn’t make it to the event because of a CNN town hall, told the workers in a prerecorded video that he stands with them “whether it is bullies online or bullies in the White House.”
In one of the most cringeworthy campaign moments so far, Klobuchar opened her address to the Culinary workers by telling the predominantly Latinx audience: “My name is Amy, but when I took Spanish in fourth grade, my name was Elena.” She added that she was given the name because she couldn’t roll her R’s. There are no R’s in “Amy,” and the anecdote, which drew blank stares from the audience, was also relentlessly mocked online.
Warren leaned heavily into women’s rights issues, telling the audience, many of whom work as housekeepers, that the White House is a mess and “when you’ve got a mess and you really need it cleaned up, you call a woman and get the job done,” deploying an unusually gender-normative punchline for a candidate who has been highly conscious of the politics of her language.
After the event, Maira Acasada Tatum, a housekeeper at the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas, said she was probably going to caucus for Warren because of her stance on raising the federal minimum wage. “I have kids and go into work and only make $8, $9 an hour,” she said, adding that she doesn’t know who her second choice is yet. When asked about her thoughts on Medicare for All, she replied in Spanish that she didn’t understand it very well.
Luis Vásquez, regional director for the Bernie Sanders campaign, at the campaign’s East Las Vegas Office on Feb 17, 2020. Photo: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept
For the first time, Nevada is holding several days of early voting ahead of its February 22 caucuses in an effort to make the election process more accessible. At these early-voting locations, where same-day registration is allowed, participants fill out a ballot using ranked-choice voting, selecting at least three and up to five of their top Democratic candidates. According to the state’s Democratic Party, more than 36,000 people participated in the first three days of early caucus voting, and 56 percent of the people who turned out on Saturday were first-time caucus-goers. On the final day of voting, Tuesday, a staggering 33,000 waited in long lines to caucus. Only 84,000 total voted in the 2016 caucuses, which did not include early voting.
One poll, conducted by the progressive think tank Data for Progress, found that 66 percent of Hispanic voters in Nevada support Sanders. No other candidate made it out of the single digits. And last week, a Morning Consult poll showed the democratic socialist with a staggering lead among Hispanic voters, jumping 10 points with the demographic the day after winning the New Hampshire primary. According to the poll, Sanders had the highest support among the group at 48 percent, followed by Mike Bloomberg at 17 percent and a distant Joe Biden at 13 percent. But a new Telemundo poll found Sanders and Biden in a virtual tie for the state’s Latino vote. Biden had a narrow lead at 34 percent to Sanders’s 31 percent, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Biden, who’s counting on black voters in South Carolina to save his chances at the nomination, has been struggling to win over Latino voters, which will almost certainly hurt his chances in states like California and Texas, two delegate-rich states with the largest Latino populations in the country, as well as in Nevada. The former vice president has for the most part refused to grapple with Barack Obama’s history of being the “deporter in chief,” as the head of the National Council of La Raza declared him in 2014. He’s received fierce backlash from immigrant rights activists and up until this weekend, repeatedly refused to apologize for the harm inflicted by the Obama administration’s deportation machine, instead implying that he internally opposed the policy. Outside of a Las Vegas campaign event Tuesday, a group of activists confronted him for not committing to stopping all deportations.
For the first time, in an interview with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos on Saturday, Biden called it a “big mistake” to have deported hundreds of thousands of people without a criminal record. “We took far too long to get it right,” Biden told Ramos, then adding, “it was a big mistake” and the administration “took too long to get it right.”
Buttigieg, Warren, and Klobuchar also have teams dedicated to Latino outreach, but the candidates’ efforts pale in comparison to Sanders and in some cases, have backfired. During an interview with Spanish-language station Telemundo last week, both Klobuchar and billionaire Tom Steyer couldn’t name the president of Mexico. The Minnesota senator admitted that she didn’t know his name while Steyer said he “forgot.” (Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also goes by the initials “AMLO.”) With the caucuses just three days away, Klobuchar, a famously difficult boss, hasn’t filled basic positions, including hiring a “Nevada operations director.” Steyer’s strategy, meanwhile, has been to pump $14.7 million into the state and flood the airwaves with ads.
As for the Warren campaign’s Nevada field operation, a half-dozen women of color departed the 70-person team with complaints of a “toxic work environment” in the run-up to the caucuses, Politico reported. According to the women, the problems within the campaign hurt their broader efforts to engage Latinos. Spanish-language literature arrived late, “there were too few Spanish-speaking organizers” despite requests to hire more, and “they felt it was a constant battle to set up events in Spanish.”
Photo: Krystal Ramirez for The Intercept
“Tío Bernie,” as many of his Latino supporters affectionately call him, owes much of his success to the campaign’s outreach efforts. His policy positions, particularly involving issues like health care and economic justice, contribute to the appeal, argued Deputy Nevada Field Director Michael Ramirez. But the campaign made the decision to prioritize Latino outreach since the beginning, Chuck Rocha, a senior Sanders adviser, said, breaking with the traditional Democratic strategy of focusing on likely voters — which typically means white and older voters — then scrambling for Latino support in the final stretch.
“We started talking to people in Spanish here before we started talking to people in English, so to me that’s very intentional organizing showing the community that we respect them, that we’re going to be here, and that we’re not going to leave,” said Rocha. The Democratic Party’s decadeslong failure to activate Latino voters has created a self-feeding cycle of disengagement: Candidates and campaigns don’t expect them to vote so they don’t bother asking them to, or at least not on the scale necessary for significant mobilization. Latino voters, poised to be the largest nonwhite eligible voting bloc in 2020, are crucial to winning the presidency and have been playing a key role in Sanders’s rise.
“So I think that’s the key to our success, is that we knew that Bernie Sanders was popular with Latinos,” Rocha continued. “But we had never really done the deep-dive organizing within the community, making sure that they knew everything about him so they can go tell their friends and their neighbors. And that’s a big part of what you’re seeing today with this soccer tournament, there’s community-based events, which are key. But community-based events alone will not win you the elections — spending lots of money to talk to lots of Latinos is how you win the elections.”