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Tag: campaign 2022
Republican Operatives Knew About Santos Fakery Long Before Election Day

Republican Operatives Knew About Santos Fakery Long Before Election Day

Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is currently facing an onslaught of calls for his resignation amid incriminating reports that have uncovered his checkered past.

Although more reports are coming to light now, a new analysis has revealed many well-connected Republicans were aware of Santos' questionable behavior and actions prior to his being elected.

According to a report from New York Times metro desk reporter Nicholas Fandos, multiple individuals with knowledge of the turmoil behind the scenes of his campaign have shed light on the concerns his vendors expressed following the release of a research analysis on him.

In fact, the individuals speaking about the campaign noted that the research findings were so startling that Santos was urged to drop out of the race before the information was made public.

Fandos wrote, "Some of Santos’ own vendors were so alarmed after seeing the study in late November 2021 that they urged him to drop out of the race and warned that he could risk public humiliation by continuing. When Santos disputed key findings and vowed to continue running, members of the campaign team quit, according to three of the four people The New York Times spoke to with knowledge of the study."

The alarming report includes details of "Fraudulent academic degrees. Involvement in a firm accused of a Ponzi scheme. Multiple evictions and a suspended driver’s license" and more.

Fandos continued, "All of it was in the report, which also said that Santos, who is openly gay, had been married to a woman. The report did not offer conclusive details, but some people briefed on the findings wondered whether the marriage was done for immigration purposes."

According to Fandos, these types of reports are so significant because "Campaigns frequently rely on this kind of research, known as vulnerability studies, to identify anything problematic that an opponent might seize on."

While it is unclear exactly what Republicans may have known about Santos, the report suggests that many had caught wind of who he was and how potentially harmful he could be long before he was elected.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Go Away!': Lindell Enrages Republicans By Doubting DeSantis Victory

'Go Away!': Lindell Enrages Republicans By Doubting DeSantis Victory

Far-right figures are roasting Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and election fraud conspiracy theorist, for claiming that election fraud occurred in the 2022 election victory of Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the presumed front-runner for the Republican presidential nominee.

Lindell, who has long claimed that voting machines helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump, recently said that he wants to audit DeSantis’ 11-point victory in Miami-Dade County.

“I don’t believe it,” Lindell said on his Frank Speech website Tuesday evening, according to The Daily Beast. “So it’s just going to show everybody— just like we always tell you about Democrats where they stole their elections…I’m going to find out if Dade County—what happened there.”

Lindell’s co-host called DeSantis’ victory in Miami-Dade County “historical”, noting that “normally Republicans don’t win that county.” Lindell told the aforementioned publication that conservative pundits “must have ownership in Dominion [Voting Systems],” the same voting machine manufacturers who, he claimed, helped steal votes from Trump in 2020.

Lindell said he and his team would need about “two weeks” to investigate possible voting “deviations” to help “get rid of these electronic voting machines.”

But, Lindell may find his efforts hampered considering that he has neither legal standing nor an official office to investigate.

Responding to Lindell’s quest, anti-LGBTQ conservative writer James Lindsay wrote, “Mike Lindell is a highly patriotic but extremely vulnerable man being used without his realizing it to discredit real election integrity efforts.”

Former Newsmax TV host John Cardillo wrote, “Lindell needs to go away. He’s being interviewed by a guy he funds, on his own network, spewing lunatic conspiracy theories. DeSantis did well in FL because he did an amazing job for FL. Lindell’s BS is pathetic, and he should stop listening to grifters using him for $.”

An editor at the conservative blog RedState mocked Lindell, writing, “I mean, DeSantis’ victory margins are just as insane as THIS AMAZING NEW DEAL ON MYPILLOW IF YOU GO TO MYPILLOW DOT COM AND…”

After the 2020 election, Lindell has used his public platform to accuse various election officials of wrongdoing. His election claims have not only failed to materialize substantial evidence, but they’ve also made him the target of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit.

Lindell hosted an August 2021 “cyber symposium” which, he claimed, would show that voting machines had been used for massive vote-rigging in the 2020 presidential election, but no such proof ever materialized during the event.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Gun Industry Pours Blood Money Into Republican Warchests

Gun Industry Pours Blood Money Into Republican Warchests

Republicans in Congress received all but $12,000 of the almost $984,000 in campaign contributions that the gun industry has donated to federal candidates so far this year.

Sen. Paul Rand (R-KY), who is seeking his third term, received the most, $38,458, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. He was followed by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) with $38,380 and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) with $25,610.

Scalise has remained a gun-rights supporter even though he nearly bled to death in June 2017 when he was shot at a baseball practice.

“The ability of the industry to use money to advance its policy agenda has increased given the dramatic rise in firearm sales that we’ve seen over the past two or three years,” said Timothy Lytton, a law professor at Georgia State University.

The Republican party’s support for gun rights led New York Times opinion writer Michelle Cottle to call it the “American Carnage Party.”

The National Rifle Association, the biggest contributor in the gun industry, gave $217,596 to candidates and parties and more than $5 million to other spending groups.

House Democrats are trying to pass bills that would raise the age to buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 and bar large-capacity magazines. Republicans in the Senate are expected to try to block these bills.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has opposed eliminating the filibuster that allows Republicans to block gun safety legislation, is the only Democratic senator getting money from the gun industry. He has received $5,000 so far.

Researcher Dan Auble said Manchin’s donations were from board members of the Boone & Crockett Club, a wildlife conservation group, and Open Secrets is reviewing the classification of the contributions.

In the House, the gun industry gave $5,000 to Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) and $1,000 each to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR). Schrader, who was first elected in 2008, lost his recent primary to progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner, an attorney and business owner.

The owners of Daniel Defense, which made the rifle used in the Uvalde killings, donated $26,100 to Republican federal candidates and a total of $20,700 to WinRed, the GOP fundraising platform, and the PAC for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Company owners Marvin and Cindy Daniel contributed to the campaigns of Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) and Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who owns a firearms business.

The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has accused the NRA of using a network of shell companies to illegally coordinate spending millions with the Trump campaign and at least six other federal candidates including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

The Federal Election Commission, which Trump stuffed with anti-regulation attorneys, has failed to investigate the allegations that the NRA has violated federal election laws—despite a court order to do so. In November, Giffords, a gun-safety organization, sued the NRA’s political victory fund and its lobbying arm and the campaigns of Hawley and Matt Rosendale, who lost a 2018 Senate campaign but was elected to the U.S. House in 2020.

“It is clear that the NRA will continue to violate the law until someone stops them,” said David Pucino, an attorney for Giffords.

Reprinted with permission from DC Report.

Anti-Semitic Remarks By GOP State Senator Inflame Tennessee Primary Dispute

Anti-Semitic Remarks By GOP State Senator Inflame Tennessee Primary Dispute

In a bold display of defiance against the self-proclaimed leader of the Republican party, the Tennessee Republican Party voted Tuesday to kick a Trump-endorsed candidate, Morgan Ortagus, and two others from the primary ballot in the state’s newly-drawn Fifth Congressional District.

Tennessee Republican Party chair Scott Golden confirmed Tuesday that Ortagus and two other congressional hopefuls, Baxter Lee and Robby Starbuck, had been booted from the ballot by the party’s executive committee. The announcement came one week after party officials confirmed that official challenges were filed against all three candidates.

The move is a culmination of a months-long effort by state and local Republicans, including legislators and activists, to challenge Ortagus’ candidacy because she had moved to the state just last year, according to NBC News.

Ortagus expressed her “deep disappointment” in a statement blasting the move, saying, “I’m a bonafide Republican by their standards, and frankly, by any metric.” Only three members of the state GOP’s executive committee voted to keep her on the ballot, according to CNN, and a whooping seventeen members voted in favor of the boot.

“As I have said all along, I believe that voters in Middle Tennessee should pick their representative — not establishment party insiders," she continued. "Our team is evaluating the options before us,” Ortagus added in her statement. However, the state GOP’s rules grant the executive committee power to disqualify candidates who don’t adhere to the party’s bylaws.

Golden has shrugged off the criticism generated by the move — which saw him called many names, but not his chair title — saying, "Never Trumper, establishment, RINO, fascist, whatever. It’s just the rules of the Republican Party."

Ortagus’ campaign argued that she had met all the requirements listed in the bylaws, touting her vote in recent GOP primaries, activity in the party’s women’s group, and her endorsement by former President Trump.

Republican State Senator Frank Niceley dismissed the endorsement when speaking to NBC News. "I don't think Trump cares one way or the other. "I think Jared Kushner — he's Jewish and she's Jewish — I think Jared will be upset. Ivanka will be upset. I don't think Trump cares."

Niceley recently came under fire himself for a tirade in which he used Adolf Hitler as an example of how homeless people can turn their lives around. Citing this gaffe, Ortagus fired back Tuesday by saying Niceley "should be ashamed of his repeated anti-Semitic rhetoric."

“I voted for Trump. I supported him,” Niceley said in an interview. “I’ll vote for Trump as long as he lives. But I don’t want him coming out here to tell me who to vote for.”

In a report this week, the Tennessean said it had obtained an April 10 email from GOP committee member Beth Campbell that said "RNC sources" had informed her that former President Trump was “OK” with the move, a claim Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich vehemently denied.

"That is a dirty lie, which should not surprise anyone, given there are RINOs in Tennessee trying to quietly pull strings and illegally remove President Trump’s endorsed candidate, Morgan Ortagus, from the ballot," Budowich said, according to NBC News.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) derided the Tennessee GOP on Twitter, saying, "I can't imagine having the 2024 Republican National Convention in a state that would allow this type of corrupt politics."

Former President Trump’s son, Don Jr., attacked the move in a tweet, too.

Trump, whose endorsement instigated this drawn bout of infighting, has yet to issue a public statement on Ortagus’ removal.