Wisconsin Senate candidate Mandela Barnes recently released a campaign ad called “Truth.” The ad is set in Barnes kitchen and features soft piano music in the background. “Look, we knew the other side would make up lies about me to scare you,” he said. He added, “Now they’re claiming I want to defund the police and abolish ICE. That’s a lie.” Here’s the ad:

But according to CNN’s Kfile, Barnes has in fact supported abolishing ICE and taken positions that sound a lot like defunding the police. In fact, he was on board with both things before they became popular in mid-2020.

In previously unreported activity on social media reviewed by CNN’s KFile, Barnes repeatedly liked tweets about abolishing ICE.

He liked one September 2018 tweet that used the “#AbolishICE” hashtag and compared the agency to “modern day slave catchers.” His Twitter account also liked other tweets calling for abolishing ICE twice in July 2018 and twice in June.

“Imagine a world without ICE,” read one of the tweets liked by Barnes.

That last tweet was from Justice Democrats and doesn’t seem very open to any other interpretation.

We don’t need deportations to be better managed or more paperwork added to legitimize the targeting of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Join Mijente: https://t.co/7Xipe8lvNz pic.twitter.com/nh6PWKUxDi

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) June 25, 2018

His statements about defunding the police are a bit more nuanced.

In early June 2020, Barnes said “defunding” police wasn’t as “aggressive” as it was portrayed, citing budget cuts to other social services.

“Defunding isn’t necessarily as aggressive as a lot of folks paint it,” Barnes said. “You know, school budgets get cut almost every year.”

When asked directly if he supported defunding the police, Barnes told Wisconsin public radio in late June 2020 that he thought funding for police was a “mismatch” compared to other services in the city.

“You can look at the City of Milwaukee, for example, where 45% of the departmental allocations that goes to police while libraries are like two or three percent, neighborhood services, two or three percent,” Barnes said. “I think that you can look at that a, a priorities mismatch.”

He’s not coming right out and saying it but what he is saying matches with what a lot of defund campaigners were saying in 2020, i.e. defund isn’t about abolishing the police it’s about reallocating scare resources.

I did my own search and found a few tweets which Kfile either missed or decided not to include in their story. Again he’s not embracing it openly but he’s certainly trying to downplay how extreme it is.

Defunding the police only dreams of being as radical as a Donald Trump pardon.

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) July 11, 2020

The link in this tweet goes to a story about the decision not to charge the officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor.

You can feel how you want about to calls to reform, defund, or abolish but the question is, how can a system that allows this to happen continue to be upheld? https://t.co/Wo7lNmIULH

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) September 24, 2020

This one isn’t about defunding but sort of suggests how Barnes felt about the police a few years ago.

So yeah, not all police. BUT, if I gave you a bowl of skittles and told you three were poison… https://t.co/MxZD5X3yHh

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) September 22, 2016

In any case, the idea that “the other side” is lying about his support for defund and abolish ICE is a real stretch. I honestly wonder if the tense of his statement isn’t the gimmick here. “Now they’re claiming I want to defund the police and abolish ICE,” he says in the ad. He doesn’t want to do those things in the future but he doesn’t actually deny that he did want to do them in the past.

Speaking of the past, these aren’t the only tweets likely to embarrass Barnes. Last week the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel turned up a bunch more that are cringe-worthy. For instance, the moment AOC became his president.

Yes! "chopping it up" I've needed this energy for so long. This is the moment she became my president. https://t.co/kQtBc2Axsp

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) July 5, 2018

In 2016 he wondered aloud if the election had been rigged:

The election was, rigged?

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) November 9, 2016

He also doesn’t care about the 2nd Amendment.

I really could not care less about a 2nd Amendment "right". Bear arms all you wish, but you should pay for your mishandling.

— Mandela Barnes (@TheOtherMandela) July 14, 2013

Anyway, you get the idea. He’s pretty far left.