Tipsheet

Civil War: Former Democratic Senator Is Just Ripping The Party's 2020 Field On Twitter

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  March 21, 2019 1:21 PM

Who is Mike Gravel? Well, he’s only the former Democratic Senator from Alaska who ran for president in 2008. If you don’t remember, it’s fine. He didn’t last long at all, but apparently, he’s considering running for president again after some teenagers filed the exploratory committee paperwork (via Politico):

Mike Gravel, the two-term former Democratic senator from Alaska who left elected office in 1981, is running for president. Kind of.

Late Tuesday night, a Gravel exploratory committee filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, setting off a cascade of Twitter commentary and accusations that the filing was simply a bit of trolling by teenage students.

The filing was the brainchild of teenagers — but they had the senator’s blessing.

“They asked me if it was okay, I said they could do what they wanted, as long as they were doing it and not me!” Gravel joked in a brief interview with POLITICO.

Gravel and the teens are an odd match at first glance: He has been out of the Senate for roughly double the time his young organizers have been alive.

“When they first approached me, I responded, ‘Do you know how old I am?’” said Gravel, who is 88.

So, is Gravel the next teen sensation? Oh, gee—probably not, and he’s not going to win the Democratic nomination in 2020. What he is doing, however, is trashing the entire 2020 Democratic field. From Joe Biden to Amy Klobuchar, no one is safe. Gravel's Twitter account has been going scorched earth on his party's contenders for a couple of days now. The Gravel Gang is here. Soak it up while it lasts because it won’t be long, but Democrats trashing other Democrats…grab the popcorn.