Warren Claims Endorsement From Indicted Donor Ed Buck Was ‘Hoax’

The Elizabeth Warren presidential campaign is pushing back against a claim that lit up right-wing media on Thursday, when it was reported that disgraced Democratic donor Ed Buck was on her list of endorsements. Buck, as AVN.com has reported, is a self-made millionaire who donated prolifically to Democratic candidates and causes. But according to prosecutors, Buck is also a dangerous predator who targets homeless or home-insecure African-American men and gets sexual thrills by injecting them with perilously high doses of methamphetamine at his home in West Hollywood, California. The 64-year-old Buck has been charged in the overdose deaths of two of those men, including Timothy Dean, a former gay porn model who performed under the name “Hole Hunter.” Buck has also been charged in the overdose death of Gemmel Moore, a male escort. Buck has denied responsibility in the death of either victim. On Thursday, Libby Watson—a writer for The New Republic—noticed Buck’s name on a list of Obama “alumni” who had endorsed Warren, and posted the find on her Twitter account. The find was quickly picked up by right-wing media outlets, including the Washington Examiner online newspaper, whose headline even claimed that Warren “boasted” of receiving the alleged sexual predator’s endorsement. The Warren campaign responded quickly as well, blaming the inclusion of Buck’s name on unidentified hoaxsters. “This was compiled by volunteers from the Obama network,” wrote Warren campaign official MaxBerger on Twitter. “Someone added fake names to the list. The volunteers caught most of them. They obviously missed one.” Berger went on to point out that Buck is currently behind bars and, he said, “has no access to email.” Which means that Buck himself “couldn’t have signed this letter.” Another Warren campaign spokesperson, quoted by The Daily Beast, noted that the list of endorsements was composed of former Barack Obama staffers or administration alumni. Buck was neither, making his name on the list “a mistake.” The spokesperson said that the list was compiled using Google Docs, and in the process several names of people who were not Obama alumni were accidentally added, and then removed. But Buck’s name was somehow missed. Buck donated $1,500 to Obama’s 2008 campaign, but never worked directly for the campaign or the former president, The Daily Beast reported. Photo By Phil Roeder / Wikimedia Commons