The Bulwark Attacks Wrong Castro Brother Over Posted List of Trump Donors
In its quest to find equal fault in the partisanship of both left and right, avowed Never Trump website The Bulwark wandered into an opinion journalist’s worst nightmare on Wednesday.
The subject was Rep. Julian Castro’s publication of a list of Donald Trump’s max donors in his San Antonio district. Castro has sent conservatives and even liberals and journalists into near apoplexy with the move, with some calling it an attempt at intimidation of citizens over political donations. Presidential spawn Donald Trump Jr. went so far as to liken it to the “kill list” allegedly kept by the man in Dayton, Ohio who massacred nine people and wounded 27 others over the weekend.
Eager to add his voice to the chorus, Jonathan Last wrote an entire post excoriating Castro for the move and calling on him to drop out of the Democratic presidential primary. There was just one problem:
So… this article is calling on Julian Castro to drop out of the presidential race. Problem is: The tweet was from Rep. Joaquin Castro, his twin brother, who is not a presidential candidate. pic.twitter.com/BqywOf9peB
— Sarah Mimms (@mimms) August 7, 2019
The Castros are identical twins, so sure, it’s hard to tell them apart. But that is sort of the job when writing a post like this.
The Bulwark took the story down in short order, leaving only a 404 page:
Well that didn’t last long. pic.twitter.com/bWMrBoz63x
— Michael Stone (@M_G_Stone) August 7, 2019
The site later reposted the story with an editor’s note claiming the original had been a “draft version,” and noting that the original tweet had come from Joaquin Castro, who is his brother’s campaign manager.
For his part, Joaquin Castro has had this to say in his defense:
First, the Indivisble@group’s graphic I shared doesn’t have private or personal info — no addresses or phone #, etc. It’s publicly reported info printed in newspapers routinely from the @nyt to the @dcexaminer. You know that. 1/ https://t.co/t6cdNckM1a
— Joaquin Castro (@Castro4Congress) August 6, 2019
2nd, what I said is true — your campaign has stoked fear of brown-skinned immigrants. Those contributions hv been used to pay for over 2K @Facebook ads declaring an invasion by Hispanics.
That is truly dangerous for millions.
Will you commit not to run another ad like that? 2/2— Joaquin Castro (@Castro4Congress) August 6, 2019
