It is a detective novel that traverses the country’s cultural wars just as vice presidential aspirations reach their peak.
JD Vance’s Wikipedia change was edited Tuesday to align his views on abortion with those of former President Donald Trump, according to an online change log. But who was behind this?
The Ohio senator is one of the favorites to be named Trump’s vice president.
And the edit will only add to intense speculation that a decision has already been made given that the editor’s username was ‘Chuengsteven’, a not-very-well-veiled reference to the Trump campaign’s chief spokesman, Steven Cheung.
The user account was created Tuesday morning and a small adjustment was made to Vance’s page.
“He has also said that abortion laws can be set by the states,” changed to: “More recently he has said that abortion laws should be set by the states.”
Senator JD Vance of Ohio is a leading contender to be named Donald Trump’s running mate. He once supported a federal ban on abortions after 15 weeks.
It’s a small but potentially significant change that could correct a potential weakness for Vance when it comes to campaigning alongside Trump.
He has said in the past that he supported a 15-week national abortion ban, but late last year (after Ohio voters backed abortion protections) he admitted that the majority of Americans did not support a blanket ban.
Instead, Trump circled around the issue before finally announcing in April that restrictions should be left to the states.
The online edit narrows the gap between Vance and his potential boss, at least as far as Wikipedia users are concerned.
And then ‘Cheungsteven’ disappeared.
But who was responsible? Was it a Vance loyalist cleaning up social media and trying to persuade the Trump campaign that his man is on the same page as the former president?
Was it a Biden aide up to mischief?
Or did Cheung, a veteran political operative, make a mistake in revealing the game?
No, he told Dailymail.com.
The original says Vance has expressed support for a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks. “He has also said that abortion can be set by the states,” he continues.
The updated version also says he might support a federal ban, but continues: “LATELY he has said that abortion laws SHOULD BE set by statistics.” A subtle but important change
The change was made by an editor with the username ‘Cheungsteven’.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the edit had nothing to do with him and instead pointed the finger at the Biden campaign.
“If I wanted to secretly edit a Wikipedia page, I wouldn’t use a username that was my own name,” he said.
Instead, he suggested a smear by the Biden campaign in an effort to cause trouble.
Sarafina Chitika, a spokeswoman for the Biden-Harris campaign, said: “We have no idea what this man is talking about.”
A cybersecurity expert and a Wikipedia source said it was impossible to trace the user.
The mystery comes at a time of feverish interest in all the potential vice presidential picks and their records.
Donald Trump faces off in the first presidential debate with Joe Biden in Atlanta on Thursday night amid reports that he could announce his running mate this week.
Or the big reveal could come during the run-up to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month, when Trump officially becomes the party’s nominee.
The abortion issue could be a point of contention there, as delegates decide the party platform.
Final touches in the spinning room for the next debate in Atlanta, Georgia
The existing platform, agreed to in 2016 and unchanged when Trump ran again in 2020, calls for a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks and calls for an amendment to the Constitution giving the unborn the same rights as people.
Anti-abortion groups fear an attempt to soften the policy and align it with Trump’s “leave it to the states” approach.
This is not the first time that Wikipedia edits have been used to promote or punish political figures. The online encyclopedia’s history is littered with such pranks.
In 2006, a Wikipedia investigation found dozens of examples of pages associated with politicians that had been edited by their staff, sometimes from IP addresses associated with the House of Representatives or the Senate.
They included Biden staffers who removed or altered details of plagiarism episodes and reshuffled discussion of a potential 2008 White House run to present it in a more favorable light.
Sometimes the editions took on a geopolitical character, hinting at the involvement of state agencies. In October 2019, for example, the BBC reported on a series of dubious pro-China edits in 22 politically sensitive articles about Taiwan or pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong.
