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Biden misspoke by directing viewers to "go to Joe30330" rather
than "text JOE to 30330," setting off a flurry of jokes on
Twitter about the 76-year-old's ineptitude with technology and a
digital race to buy similar domain names.
Josh Fayer, a 21-year-old public relations student at Syracuse
University in New York, said he had just stopped watching the
debate when a friend texted to say he had bought the domain name
the former vice president cited.
They decided to redirect it to Fayer's parody presidential
campaign site: "Josh for America," which Fayer said he launched
as an April Fool's joke this year.
Fayer's site introduces him as "the first Gen Z'er to declare
candidacy for this office" and includes a video that stated his
platform of "no homework in college."
"I don't have any broader ambitions for a fake exploratory
committee," he joked to Reuters in a phone interview. "I didn't
file any of the paperwork."
Fayer said his parody election bid originally garnered only a
few retweets but that his site had more than 53,000 views just
minutes after the debate in Detroit finished.
He said he did not want to endorse any presidential candidate.
But late on Wednesday, his site's donate button sent visitors to
a page inviting them to "donate to our good friend Pete
Buttigieg's campaign."
The campaign for Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana,
who is one of Biden's rivals for the 2020 Democratic
presidential nomination, did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. A similar domain, joe3030.com, also was
directing people to Buttigieg's campaign site.
It appears that Biden meant to direct voters to his campaign's
texting platform, a popular digital fundraising strategy.
Without mentioning the gaffe, the @JoeBiden Twitter handle sent
out the correct call to action in a tweet immediately following
the debate.
Yet another similar URL, joe33030.com, directed people on
Wednesday to Biden's official campaign website.
A spokesman for the Biden campaign declined to comment.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford; Editing by Colleen Jenkins
and Peter Cooney)
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