LEE FANG, lee.fang at theintercept.com, @theintercept, @lhfang
Investigative journalist at The Intercept, Fang just wrote the piece “Secretly Taped Audio Reveals Democratic Leadership Pressuring Progressive to Leave Race,” [see piece and video] which states: “Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, has for years been a prolific campaigner on behalf of current and potential members of Congress. …

“In a frank and wide-ranging conversation, Hoyer laid down the law for [congressional candidate Levi] Tillemann [a former official with the Obama administration’s Energy Department]. The decision, Tillemann was told, had been made long ago. It wasn’t personal, Hoyer insisted, and there was nothing uniquely unfair being done to Tillemann, he explained: This is how the party does it everywhere. …

“The secretly taped audio recording, released here for the first time, reveals how senior Democratic officials have worked to crush competitive primaries and steer political resources, money, and other support to hand-picked candidates in key races across the country, long before the party publicly announces a preference. The invisible assistance boosts the preferred candidate in fundraising and endorsements, and then that fundraising success and those endorsements are used to justify national party support. Meanwhile, opponents of the party’s unspoken pick are driven into paranoia, wondering if they are merely imagining that unseen hands are working against them.”