Tag: republican party
Charlie Kirk

The Grift That May Cost Trump The Election

If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz win the White House on November 5, the Democrats may owe their triumph to the notorious character flaw that plagues the Republican Party of Donald Trump: an irresistible urge to grift.

In an election likely to be determined by a very narrow proportion of votes in a few states, the difference between winning and losing could very well depend on what politicians have long referred to by the initials "GOTV" — getting out the vote — a process that involves calling people at home, knocking on their doors, letting them know how and where to vote, and perhaps even providing transportation to the polling place. It is a complex, demanding and essential campaign function that requires literally tens of millions of individual interactions to be orchestrated with exceptional attention to detail. To perform those tasks poorly (or not at all) can transform incipient victory into certain defeat.

It is also a potentially expensive element of a national election, even when most of the job is undertaken by volunteers. That's where the opportunities for grifting arose in this cycle, after members of the Trump gang realized his campaign's field operations would attract big money from wealthy supporters. And at the forefront of the would-be chiselers in the 2024 campaign was Charlie Kirk, the aging leader of the MAGA movement's youth organization, Turning Point USA. (Kirk's personally profitable stewardship of Turning Point is examined in my new book, The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.)

While the "ground game" for a Republican presidential ticket has been traditionally overseen by the Republican National Committee, Kirk used his close connections with the Trump family, especially Don Jr., to seize effective control of the party apparatus. (No doubt the president's eldest son was grateful to Turning Point for bulk buying copies of his book "Triggered.") He succeeded in pushing out RNC chair Ronna McDaniel and promoting his Turning Point PAC as the Trump campaign's principal field operation. He also persuaded Trump to install daughter-in-law Lara Trump, with no discernible credentials, as RNC chair so she could fire the competent RNC staff -- and advance his fortunes. He announced he would raise $108 million to "chase every vote" in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin.

The wholesale abandonment of McDaniel's extensive election planning provoked deep skepticism among veteran GOP operatives. They saw no reason why Kirk would need so much cash to get out the vote in three states — or why anyone should invest in his dubious project. They noted that Turning Point's previous election organizing efforts in Arizona's elections in 2022 had not ended well: Every Republican running statewide that year lost.

But Turning Point's lousy midterm results didn't discourage Trump, who was drawn to Kirk's emphasis on turning out "low-propensity" far-right MAGA base voters, rather than seeking to persuade the unaffiliated or undecided. That strategy has lately devolved into a crusade for the support of alienated young men, who may or may not actually show up at the polls. How Kirk plans to motivate them is unclear.

Not long after McDaniel's ouster, Kirk and his allies began to pressure state and local Republican officials to shift their voter outreach and canvassing programs onto a new platform — an app marketed by Superfeed Technologies, a private firm that happens to be owned by Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point USA's chief operating officer. Just to keep it all in the family, Kirk's mother-in-law sits on the Superfeed board of directors.

Now perhaps this web of conflict and profit is all perfectly legitimate. And maybe the Superfeed app and Kirk's ambitious vote-herding plan will prove to be a brilliant success. But election experts told the Associated Press in early October that they doubt Turning Point can mobilize enough new or infrequent Trump voters to affect the outcome. They pointed out that record numbers of voters cast ballots in 2016 and 2020, which doesn't leave a large share of likely voters to be organized.

Another sign of weakness is that Turning Point has turned over its outreach campaign in Michigan, which reportedly collapsed, to Elon Musk's America PAC. The Musk effort has suffered from its own widely mocked technical glitches and flaws — including a scam that allowed its employees to falsify their canvassing records.

Contrast all that sleaze with the Harris-Walz campaign, bolstered by tens or even hundreds of thousands of unpaid volunteers. They are motivated not by love of money but love of country.

We don't know which side will win yet — but we already know who deserves to win.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

RNC Taking Unprecedented

RNC Taking Unprecedented Steps To Write 2024 Platform In Total Secrecy

The Republican Party has recently argued, according to NPR, that "an unwieldy platform could be weaponized by Democrats and the media."

As a result, in "a break with tradition," the Republican National Convention has decided to launch its platform privately this election cycle, Semafor reports.

The news outlet notes that the party's choice "to keep spectators and media out of the room, at Milwaukee’s Baird Center, was reported last week by the New York Times."


Trump campaign staffers Chris LaCitiva and Susie Wiles wrote in a memo last week, "For decades, Republicans have published textbook-long platforms that are scrutinized and intentionally misrepresented by our political opponents. The mainstream media uses their bully pulpit to perpetuate lies and misrepresentations, and the voters are often left believing we stand for something different than we actually do."

Semafor reports the pair "did not cite examples in the memo, but in 2016, the committee’s tweak to languageabout defending Ukraine generated bad headlines; well into 2018, it was inspiring questions from a special counsel. In 2020, the decision to punt on the platform inspired some embarrassing coverage, but not too much."

Politico reported Tuesday that "two hardline anti-abortion delegates to next week’s GOP platform committee have been stripped of their positions, according to several members of the Republican National Committee, underscoring a broader fear among evangelicals and other social conservatives that the party is poised to moderate its stance on abortion at the direction of former President Donald Trump."

The news outlet noted that a Trump campaign official argued the two delegates — "longtime party activist LaDonna Ryggs and former state party chair Chad Connelly" — were never "on the platform committee and maintained that two other people were the ones properly elected to the body by South Carolina’s convention delegates, suggesting that the 'state party' had tried to circumvent the RNC."

Additionally, Politico reports, "Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and a member of the platform committee, accused RNC Chair Michael Whatley of 'stalling tactics' in a letter on Monday about efforts to ensure the meetings are open."

Perkins said that keeping the meetings private "heightens speculation that the GOP platform will be watered down to a few pages of meaningless, poll-tested talking points.'"

RNC committee person Oscar Brock said, "The lack of transparency is unwelcome. When people operate behind closed doors, you always have to wonder what the outcome is going to be.”

Semafor emphasizes, "The decision to pull curtains around the platform won’t stop coverage of what’s in it, but it will prevent the real-time drama of prior years."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer

Arizona GOP Official Says She'd 'Lynch' Her Party's Own Election Official

Shelby Busch, who is vice chair of the Maricopa County, Arizona Republican Party, was recently heard threatening the life of county recorder Stephen Richer — the top election administrator for the Grand Canyon State's most populous county.

MSNBC columnist Jahan Jones reported that during a recent GOP event, Busch made the remark about Richer, who is Jewish, to laughter from the audience.

"If Stephen Richer were in this room, I would lynch him," she said. "I don’t unify with people who don’t believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country."

Busch added that she would prefer the county have someone in the office who would be "a good, Christian man that believes what we believe."

Richer, in the meantime, has been subjected to numerous death threats, particularly in the wake of the 2022 gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections in which Democrats prevailed in both races. This is despite Richer being a Republican himself.

“If lynching is in your vocabulary you need to have a heart to heart with yourself,” Richer said, according to AZfamily.com. “That shouldn’t be in your vocabulary given the history of that term and it shouldn’t be on your vocabulary to say about anyone you with whom you disagree.”

According to Phoenix-based TV stations KTVK and KPHO, Busch is now facing calls to walk back her statement, though she insists the comment was made "in jest." The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix (JCRC) condemned both Busch and the Maricopa County GOP in an official statement.

"We urge Ms. Busch to retract and apologize, and the Maricopa County Republican Party to stand against such rhetoric," the JCRC stated.

Maricopa County has been instrumental in Democrats' recent success in Arizona. Democrat Katie Hobbs defeated Republican Kari Lake by approximately 17,000 votes, with her victory made possible by her 38,000-vote advantage in the Democratic-leaning county. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) had a more robust margin of victory over Republican challenger Blake Masters, whom he dispatched by a 51-46 margin.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

'Absolute Bloodbath' Roils RNC As Trump Seizes Control Amid Purge Of Party

'Absolute Bloodbath' Roils RNC As Trump Seizes Control Amid Purge Of Party

With Ronna Romney McDaniel gone, the Republican National Committee (RNC) now has the ultra-MAGA leadership that Donald Trump wanted — including Trump loyalist Michael Whatley replacing McDaniel as chair and Lara Trump as co-chair.

But the changes at the RNC go beyond Whatley (who formerly chaired the North Carolina Republican Party) and Lara Trump, who is married to Donald Trump's son, Eric Trump.

According to Politico's Alex Isenstadt and The Guardian's Hugo Lowell, mass firings are underway — a purge a GOP source described as an "absolute bloodbath."

Lowell, in an article published by The Guardian on March 11, reports, "Donald Trump's new leadership team at the Republican National Committee started the process of ousting scores of staffers on Monday night, clearing out its ranks as they prepare to bring the Committee under the wing of the Trump 2024 presidential campaign, sources familiar with the matter said.

"The RNC, according to Lowell, "is expected to cull about 60 people across the political, data and communications departments."

"At least five members of the senior staff will be let go," Lowell explains, "and some third-party contracts may also be cancelled…. In ousting large swathes of the RNC, the new chair, Michael Whatley, and the new co-chair, Lara Trump — the former president's daughter-in-law — moved to reorganize the Republican Party's central committee to fall squarely behind the Trump campaign just days after they were formally elected."

Lowell adds, "The RNC is being brought under the Trump campaign to such an extent, the sources said, that the firings are mainly to ensure there is no overlap in roles between the RNC and the campaign. The Trump campaign, for instance, already has robust political and communications teams."

Isenstadt, reporting for Politico, notes that "Trump advisers have described the RNC's structure as overly bloated and bureaucratic."

"The RNC had about $8 million at the end of December, only about one-third as much as the Democratic National Committee," Isenstadt reports. "Under the new structure, the Trump campaign is looking to merge its operations with the RNC. Key departments, such as communications, data and fundraising, will effectively be one and the same."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

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