“Who’s paying for it?”: Fake Biden robocall tells New Hampshire voters to stay home
A fake robocall purporting to be from President Joe Biden targeted New Hampshire voters, telling them to stay away from the polls in the state’s presidential primary on Tuesday, per NBC News.
The New Hampshire attorney general was prompted to look into the matter after Kathy Sullivan, a top New Hampshire Democrat who runs a super PAC that urges Democrats in her state to write in Biden’s name in the primary, filed a complaint. NBC reported that Sullivan’s personal cell phone number appeared in the caller ID of those receiving the robocall.
“What a bunch of malarkey,” the phony message begins, citing an oft-used phrase by Biden. The message adds that “it’s important that you save your vote for the November election.”
“Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” the message says.
“Although the voice in the robocall sounds like the voice of President Biden, this message appears to be artificially generated based on initial indications,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement. “These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire Presidential Primary Election and to suppress New Hampshire voters. New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely.”
Sullivan in an interview said she began receiving calls on Sunday from people who had received the robocall.
“I said, ‘You got a call from Joe Biden, and he gave you my number?’” Sullivan said after one person, who was not a Biden supporter, informed her of the call. A volunteer for the super PAC who also received the call was able to tape it, sharing it with the write-in group’s organizers who then passed it on to NBC. Though the source of the bogus call has not yet been identified, “It’s obviously somebody who wants to hurt Joe Biden,” Sullivan said.
“I want them to be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible because this is an attack on democracy,” Sullivan added. “I’m not going to let it go. I want to know who’s paying for it? Who knew about it? Who benefits?”