A robo call supposedly featuring President Biden urging New Hampshire Democrats not to vote in the state’s presidential primary was immediately used by the news media to accuse Republicans of suppressing votes, because, you know, that’s what they do. The media reported that two Texas companies were the source of the calls: Life Corporation and Lingo Telecom, and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had issued cease-and-desist letters to both companies. Texas companies—well, we all know what THAT means.

Surprise! The deep-fake recording was not the work of those racist Republicans, but of a Democratic consultant who worked for Democrat Dean Phillips’s quixotic Presidential campaign. Phillips has the ethical mission of giving his party’s voters the opportunity to show that they would prefer not to have a rapidly declining dementia sufferer carry the Democratic banner in November.

Paul Carpenter, a New Orleans magician—that’s him doing street magic above— came forward to admit that he was hired to use artificial intelligence to impersonate President Joe Biden for the robocalls. Carpenter explained that he was hired in January by veteran Democratic consultant Steve Kramer, who has been advising Phillips. “I created the audio used in the robocall. I did not distribute it,” Carpenter said. “I was in a situation where someone offered me some money to do something, and I did it. There was no malicious intent. I didn’t know how it was going to be distributed.” He says he was paid $150.

Let me pause here to inquire, “What did you think such a recording would be used for, you creep?” This is contrived ignorance, and Ethics Alarms won’t accept that dodge as anything but cowardly and irresponsible.

The magician says he is fessing up because he now regrets his involvement and wants people to know how easy it is to use AI to mislead. I would add that people also should know that there are plenty of people with dead ethics alarms like him who will facilitate a fraud for a lousy $150.

Creating the fake audio, the magician says, took him about 20 minutes and cost about a buck, and he had the receipts. “It’s so scary that it’s this easy to do,” Carpenter said. “People aren’t ready for it.”

Oh NOW he’s scared…

For their part, Phillips and his campaign were in high dudgeon as they claimed to be outraged and betrayed by Kramer’s stunt. They will never work with him again! They may pursue legal action! “I’m disgusted that a consultant hired to assist my campaign w/ballot access is alleged to have faked a robocall impersonating Joe Biden,” Phillips tweeted last week. “While I don’t know the person, such behavior is despicable and I trust will be investigated by authorities.”

“It’s also despicable that the party actively limits access to state ballots and blackballs reputable consultants who would otherwise work with challengers like me. The corruption in politics is pervasive and must be exposed and addressed,” he added.

Oh, I get it. He had to hire a slimeball political operative (pretty much all political consultants are slimeballs) because the good ones have been locked up by the Biden campaign.

Phillips’ press secretary Katie Dolan added, “If it is true that Mr. Kramer had any involvement in the creation of deepfake robocalls, he did so of his own volition which had nothing to do with our campaign…The fundamental notion of our campaign is the importance of competition, choice, and democracy. We are disgusted to learn that Mr. Kramer is allegedly behind this call, and if the allegations are true, we absolutely denounce his actions.”

This consultant that the candidate and his campaign are trying to distance themselves from received $259,946 from the campaign in just two months, December and January. It knew the guy was dodgy: after all, in 2020 he accepted money to help the presidential campaign of Kanye West. Where can I get odds so I can slap down a bet that Dolan et al. told the consultant, “Look, do whatever you feel will work, and we don’t want to know about it” ?