Patrick Mauldin told the New York Times that he was the one who designed the website that reads “Uncle Joe is back and ready to take a hands-on approach to America’s problems!”
The website mocking the Biden campaign topped Google search results for “Biden election website” soon after it first appeared online. It mostly consisted of GIFs of Biden touching women and girls, as well as quotes from the Democratic hopeful, including his opposition to court-ordered busing in the 1970s and his support for the Iraq war.
Mauldin told the New York Times that website was intended to help Democrats “face facts.” He said he intended to keep his name off the website at first because “people tend to dismiss things that they don’t like, especially if it comes from the opposite side.” Mauldin insisted there was nothing duplicitous about it, noting:“I don’t make any claims on the site to lean one way or the other. Facts are not partisan.”
The Times reported Saturday that the campaign's communications director Tim Murtaugh said it is “great that talented supporters of Trump use their time to help his re-election.”
“We appreciate their efforts in their own time with parodies like this that help the cause,” he said, though he did not directly address Mauldin's website according to the paper.
According to the New York Times reports, Mauldin, 30, is seen as a rising star of the campaign, prized for his mischievous sense of humour and digital know-how. He also reportedly designed at least three other websites mocking Democratic front-runners: “Millionaire Bernie”, “Elizabeth Warren for Chief” and “Kamala Harris for Arresting the People,” but no website has been as successful as Biden’s. Mauldin and his brother Ryan also run a Republican political consulting firm called Vici Media Group, according to The Times.
Biden campaign spokesman T.J. Ducklo told The Times that they knew about the site, but not who was behind it.
“Imagine our surprise that a site full of obvious disinformation,” he said, “is the handiwork of an operative tied to the Trump campaign,” he said.