Left-leaning Twitter personalities have rushed to voice their outrage towards Mathias Döpfner, the German CEO of Axel Springer, Politico’s parent company, after emails leaked by The Washington Post showed his support for former President Donald Trump.
National correspondent for The Young Turks, Matthew Sheffield, referred to Döpfner as “the new, far-right owner of Politico,” and asked “How soon until his dishonesty and extreme views filter into Politico’s journalism?”
Mathias Döpfner, the new, far-right owner of Politico urged his employees to pray for Donald Trump’s reelection and then lied about it when confronted by a journalist.
How soon until his dishonesty and extreme views filter into Politico’s journalism? https://t.co/awvdQEBOeo pic.twitter.com/viRryCKCzF
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) September 6, 2022
Keith Olberman chimed in tweeting, “You not only worked for a ‘neutral’ owner who prays for Trump but when confronted with the email confirming it says ‘That doesn’t exist.'”
Congrats @politico. You not only worked for a “neutral” owner who prays for Trump but when confronted with the email confirming it says “That doesn’t exist. It has never been sent and has never been even imagined” then says…oh yeah maybe that’s me 🤦🏼♂️https://t.co/V36l24xDWY
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) September 6, 2022
Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali also chimed in, calling Döpfner’s ownership of Politico “a right-wing takeover” of mainstream outlets, claiming Politico is as guilty as CNN and CBS in the “normalization of fascism.” (RELATED: YouTuber Goes Mega-Viral Calling Out CNN For Stealing His Work)
Right-wing take over of Politico and CNN, plus mainstream outlets like CBS News and others actively courting Trumpers and pulling their punches for sake of GOP “access” reveals everything terrible about mainstream media and its normalization of fascism. It’s going to get worse.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) September 6, 2022
Döpfner came under fire after The Washington Post revealed emails he sent his closest executives weeks before the 2020 election. “Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?” he wrote in the email, according to The Washington Post.
The CEO also added praise for the former President’s accomplishments, including tax reforms, his stance against Russia and China, and his push for NATO to contribute more, the outlet noted. “No American administration in the last 50 years has done more,” he wrote.
After initially denying the email existed, Döpfner said he intended his statements to be read as “an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump,” according to The Washington Post.
Döpfner justified his email at Vox’s Code Conference Tuesday, stating that he “never tried to influence journalists,” according to Axios. He reportedly sent the email in response to the Trump administration’s plan to sue google, an action he supported, the outlet noted.
Döpfner apparently doubled down on his statements at the conference, expressing to the audience that every democracy should ban Tik Tok, Axios reported. The Trump administration attempted to outlaw the app, as well as other China-owned apps, in July 2020 as a national security measure. “It’s just insane not to do that,” he added, citing that Western companies cannot enter China without attending to their strict censorship laws, Axios reported.