Ahn Cheol-soo, a member of the People Power Party and standing advisor to the election countermeasures committee for the Seoul Gangseo-gu mayoral by-election, criticized former leader Lee Jun-seok for spreading 'fake news' during the by-election process, saying, "Members who stab from within are the perpetrators."
On the 13th, Ahn said on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' that "Former leader Lee was the first to spread fake news."
He also criticized Lee's 'misconduct' through his social media the day before and announced that he would file a complaint with the party's ethics committee.
The reason was the spread of 'fake news' related to Ahn's alleged use of abusive language.
Ahn stated that Lee appeared on a radio show on the 10th and claimed that Ahn ruined the election by using abusive language against the Democratic Party candidate during a campaign rally in Gangseo-gu the previous day, saying, "He said 'XX and fell down'." Ahn called this 'fake news.' When a Democratic Party supporter hurled insults at Ahn, saying "JiX and fell down, gaeXkki," Ahn responded humorously with "XX and fell down? Hahaha," but did not direct abusive language toward the Democratic Party side.
Ahn said, "Everything, including the sound, is recorded exactly in the video. So even the reporters saw this and decided it was not newsworthy and did not report it." He explained, "The problem was that the next day, no reports came out, so the words of the citizen in front were all deleted, and (Lee Jun-seok) spread false news saying, 'Ahn Cheol-soo used abusive language. If we lose this election, I am the third person responsible after the president and party leader.'"
He added, "Accordingly, the Democratic Party spokesperson issued a statement as if on cue, and then two media outlets published reports. Fortunately, I later distributed the full video, so most media outlets reported the truth. I think members who produce fake news and stab from within are perpetrators, so I will file a complaint with the party's ethics committee."
In response to the host's question, "Lee Jun-seok predicted the vote margin closely. Why does the party oust such a strategist?" Ahn replied, "Can that really be called a strategy? In the last 20th general election, it was predicted that the result would be about that much, and most people thought the margin would be about that much at most."
When asked whether the People Power Party also expected such a vote margin during the election process, he said, "I personally thought it would probably widen to double digits or more, considering the current public sentiment."
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