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Jan. 13, 2025 - The Culture War - Tim Pool
24:41
Democrats Spark OUTRAGE After Funneling Donations For Fire Relief Though Democrat PAC ActBlue

Tim Pool discusses how Democrats are using ActBlue to receive donations for fire relief.   BUY CAST BREW COFFEE TO SUPPORT THE SHOW - https://castbrew.com/ Become A Member And Protect Our Work at http://www.timcast.com Host: Tim Pool @Timcast (everywhere) My Second Channel - https://www.youtube.com/timcastnews Podcast Channel - https://www.youtube.com/TimcastIRL

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tim pool ▲ ● ▼
The L.A. wildfire is now expected to be the most expensive disaster in U.S. history.
With estimating totals of around one hundred and fifty billion dollars in damages already and rising, the disaster is far from over.
The Santa Ana winds are expected to pick up, spreading this fire further, and there is a major political disaster.
A lack of water, a lack of leadership, and no strong statements from anybody in charge.
We've seen arsonists.
We've seen looters.
The death toll is now at 24 and it's expected to go up.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated.
We are truly looking at one of the darkest periods in this country's history.
I mean, maybe not the worst, but it's really, really bad.
Now, deep within this natural disaster is a political controversy a brewing.
Many people are trying to raise money for disaster relief.
But something interesting is happening.
Democrats are posting links not to the actual charities, but to political action committees.
Now, why would they do that?
Well, as many people are suggesting, Democrats are attempting to campaign off the disaster, to skim money off the top and build a network so they can fundraise off of you later and trick you into going to their political candidates' campaign websites.
In one story reported by Fox News, Gavin Newsom defends fire response with fact-check site linking to Democrat Party fundraising platform.
A website intended to combat misinformation about the fires encourages users to donate to those affected through Democratic fundraising giant ActBlue.
From the New York Post, Gavin Newsom sparks outrage for soliciting donations to L.A. wildfire victims via his Super PAC. And then we have this tweet from Elizabeth Warren.
To help support the communities around LA being devastated by wildfires, can you split a donation between the LA Fire Department Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles?
What does it say underneath?
Well, according to Community Notes, this is not a link to a charity.
It's a link to a Democrat fundraising platform.
They take 3.95% of all transactions.
So what is actually going on here?
Democrats are asking you to donate to political action committees, not to the charities, but then they're saying the money's gonna go to the charity.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a longstanding controversy around ActBlue, where Democrats skim 3.95% off the top of all donations before it makes its way to the actual charity.
ActBlue largely runs Democrat political campaigns, but it's also used for progressive causes.
Now, while some accuse Act Blue of wrongdoing, nothing that they're doing is actually illegal.
It's brilliant campaign strategy, information gathering and fundraising.
And I'll say this right away.
Most liberals donating don't care that they're donating in this way.
However, there are probably a lot of people who are not political and don't realize what's actually going on.
Now, my friends, we will deep dive into the world of ActBlue, its controversies, and what is going on with these posts by Newsom.
And oh boy, wait till you see what he's doing.
But there is more to this story than meets the eye.
You see, what if I were to tell you that the grift goes much, much deeper?
That there are, say, podcasts that will promote a foundation.
And they'll say, guys, listen to my show.
Donate to this cause.
The cause, as it turns out, is deeply connected, if not run by the same people on the podcast.
And when you donate to that cause, let's just call it charity number one.
Charity number one's largest expenditure is the podcast in question.
Now talk about something brilliant.
And once again, of course, not illegal, maybe unethical by some opinion, but I just say it's brilliant.
It really is.
You might think it's dirty.
You might think it's duplicitous and deceptive.
But it's just a clever way to build a network, a database, make money and fund your operation.
Maybe a little smarmy, but let's deep dive into what is going on right now and then we'll get into the media stuff.
From our good friends over at Wikipedia, they say ActBlue is an American Democratic Political Action Committee and fundraising platform founded in 2004.
ActBlue is a major part of the Democratic Party's fundraising infrastructure.
It's focused on mobilizing small dollar donors and as of June 2024 had raised $13.7 billion for Democratic candidates and causes since it was established.
ActBlue is organized as a PAC, but it serves as a conduit for processing individual contributions made to the platform.
Under federal law, these contributions are made by individuals and are not considered political action committee donations.
Okay, so right now, what's the controversy?
I mean, Gavin Newsom is fundraising for firefighters.
I'm sure you're asking, what's the big deal there?
Well, let me break it down for you from the New York Post.
In a story titled, Gavin Newsom Sparks Outrage for Soliciting Donations to LA Wildfire Victims Via His Super PAC. It reads, California Governor Gavin Newsom sparked fierce outrage Sunday for soliciting donations to victims of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires via his Super PAC, which pushed users to add their personal information to a Democratic fundraising site.
Newsom57 posted a link on Axe to CaliforniaFireFacts.com, a website set up by his campaign committee in response to what he claimed was misinformation on the wildfires.
But the site urges users to give money to the California Fire Foundation and links them to a module for ActBlue, the Democratic Party's fundraising platform.
The ActBlue donation box says the money is being raised by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom Super PAC. Quote, Your donation will go directly towards supporting firefighters and the communities they serve, including direct financial support to impacted residents, the site says.
The California Fire Foundation, which helps firefighters, their families, and victims, allows users to donate directly without relying on a service like ActBlue to make those transactions.
Users who donate via Newsom's fundraising appeal are also automatically signing up for text messages from his super PAC if they provide their phone numbers.
Let's take a look at his website, CaliforniaFirefax.com.
As you can see here, it says California Firefax.
It's, to be honest, a rather poorly designed website.
And it talks about the lies and the facts and everything that they're doing to help make everything better.
They're saying that many people on the right are pushing lies about what's actually going on during the fire and that actually they're doing the best they can.
Up top, you'll see a link that says, Donate to California Fire Foundation.
When you click it, you are brought to the Campaign for Democracy.
Hold on a minute.
I thought we were donating to the California Fire Foundation, not Campaign for Democracy.
What is this?
It says, Your donation will go directly towards supporting firefighters and the communities they serve, including direct financial support to impacted residents.
You can then give any amount of money you want with some presets.
Want to make it monthly?
Count me in.
Have an ActBlue account?
Sign in.
Okay.
Well, down below, it says charitable donations made through this form are received and processed by ActBlue Charities, a 501c3 tax exempt organization formed to democratize charitable giving and are subject to ActBlue's terms of service.
We subsequently give your contribution to the organization or cause that you've selected on the contribution form within 30 days.
Well, that's strange.
And as we already saw from that other tweet, from that community note, ActBlue takes 3.95%.
So what's the controversy?
If you go to the California Fire Foundation's website, you can donate to them directly.
You don't need to give 3.95% to act blue.
To put it simply, my friends, as a disaster is happening, as arsonists are starting fires, looters are targeting people's homes.
The government is struggling to maintain these things.
Democrat politicians, rest assured, have found a way to skim about 4% off the top of your donations into their machines' pockets.
Now, here's what people have responded with to me when I've pointed this out.
They say, Tim, come on.
That 3.95%, that's just credit card transaction fees, right?
They're not really skimming anything off the top.
Let's pause and put a pin in that one.
And I'll say, Let's start here.
How about I accept that argument?
We'll put it to the side.
What are they doing?
They're building a database, your email addresses, your phone numbers.
That's worth a ton of money.
I mean, there was a meme and a gag going on during the election cycle where people were getting spammed like crazy from these political ads, these political text messages.
I know I was getting them.
I had to block all of them.
I'm still getting them.
It's nuts.
Well, your phone number is valuable.
You're a person they can target to make money off in the future.
They know that you're a donor.
They know your email.
They know your phone number.
And they can put you in a category where your age, where you live.
They're building a database for political campaigns.
But how about this?
Let's grab that 3.95%, pull it back in, and I'll debunk that argument.
It took me only two seconds to do a Google search.
NerdWallet says, credit card processing fees, what small businesses should know in 2024. Quite simply, they say, processing fees are typically between 1.5 and 3.5%.
To put it simply, if someone purchases $100 worth of goods, between $1.50 and $3.50 are pulled to pay for the credit card transaction itself.
So if you're a small business, you don't get that money.
And that's what you'll notice.
When you go to a lot of small businesses, they say they charge 3% if you want to use a credit card because they have to pay that extra to use the credit card.
Yeah, it kind of sucks.
But hold on.
ActBlue is 3.95%.
That's a bit different than 3.5 on the high end.
Right.
Because the reality is they are skimming a little bit for themselves.
Donald Trump wanted to have the G7 meeting.
At Trump Doral.
This is during his first term.
It's a long time ago.
And he got a lot of criticism from the left.
And he got a little bit of criticism from the right.
I was actually very critical of Donald Trump's move to try and hold the G7 meeting at Trump Doral, his golf course in Florida, because it's a conflict of interest.
On the left, they said Trump is trying to make money off government.
That's sort of true, but not really.
They attacked him a little too hard.
On the right.
Many people said Trump is offering a discount to the government.
It would be more expensive to hold this event somewhere else.
Well, technically true.
Still, many on the right pointed out it's a conflict of interest.
Here's the point that I made.
Donald Trump's Doral location has fixed costs.
They've got likely taxes.
They've got utility bills, staffing fees.
They have to pay those no matter what.
If Trump hosts the G7 at cost, He's still covering some of his hard costs.
Though he may not make profits, it's going to pay for the utility bills, it's going to pay for the staffing that are there, and it's still a conflict of interest.
Basically, if he's got three days of vacancy at Trump Doral, he's going to lose money.
If he brings in an event and has them charge and charges them cost, he's now even.
You see, it's still a conflict of interest.
Ultimately, Trump said, well, OK, fine.
We won't do this and backed off.
But now let's take a look at Act Blue and the issue at play, even if.
If it was only a tiny bit to cover the infrastructure of the financial service that's being rendered, you know, ActBlue has servers.
They have employees.
They got to pay their bills, right?
Right.
This means that the platform that is typically used for Democrat politicians to win elections is having its infrastructure paid for during disasters and at the expense of those who are trying to fund disaster relief.
If they take four dollars off of every hundred you spend and you think you're giving it to firefighters.
But $4 pays for the servers, the website, and the staffing of a Democrat political infrastructure machine.
That, my friends, is the controversy, and it is skimming off the top.
Now let's dive a little bit deeper here into a recent controversy with some allegations.
Pod Save America, a very prominent lefty liberal podcast, recently hosted Gavin Newsom.
And Gavin Newsom basically said, look, they're lying.
We are doing our best.
Let's debunk the lies.
And this is where a lot of the controversy begins.
But Pod Save America is in an interesting position right now.
Now, I want to pause real quick and just say this again.
I have not seen anything illegal, and I would argue that Democrats are huge fans of what it is these organizations do.
If you go to your average progressive and tell them, hey, when you donate...
To that firefighter relief through Gavin Newsom's thing.
ActBlue, Democrat political infrastructure, gets 3.95% and it helps them fund their infrastructure.
Democrats, progressives, liberals are going to say, that's actually really cool.
I really like that.
They will like that.
So is it really bad?
The issue at play for me on this is that...
Well, you should disclose this.
And they do.
But I think most people don't realize they're being routed through an intermediary, through a middleman.
And that means there's going to be a bunch of people who are not really politically active, who are getting roped in to helping fund Democrat infrastructure.
Like I said, Democrats probably love it.
Pod Save America put up this tweet.
New episode dropping soon.
John Favre sits down with California Governor Gavin Newsom to discuss the catastrophic wildfires wreaking havoc in Los Angeles.
They tweeted, If you want to help those impacted by the California wildfires, please donate at votesaveamerica.com slash relief.
Well, alright, so let's click the link and pull up Vote Save America.
And what do we have here?
It says support VSAA and Crooked Ideas Disaster Relief Fund.
Donate now to directly support states impacted by natural disasters.
Right now we're focusing on relief efforts for those impacted by the wildfires in Southern California.
It goes on to say that your donation will be split between five different charities.
They say Vote Save America Action and Crooked Ideas have identified the above charities to ensure your donation has the highest impact.
This fund may be updated as more organizations are vetted.
They say Crooked Ideas is a non-profit from your hopeful but anxious news-obsessed pals at Crooked Media.
Our mission is to engage you around the biggest policy debates shaping our world and help you understand that a better world is possible.
But hold on there a minute, my friends.
Once again, we see right here that your charitable contribution is going to be made through ActBlue in accordance with their policies and that your donation will be held or delivered within 30 days.
Some people are saying that they hold it for 30 days.
It's saying within 30 days, which means up to.
But once again, you think you're donating directly to these charities, but you're going through an intermediary.
This does a couple things.
I mean, it looks really good on the books of these nonprofits when they're like, we brought in $30 in revenue.
We gave out $30 in revenue, but it makes their revenue look better.
Not that it does all that much, to be honest.
But if 4% then goes to ActBlue once again, you watch Pod Save America.
You think you're donating directly to these causes, but in fact, a small portion of what you give goes to ActBlue, which helps fund Democrat political campaign infrastructure.
Okay, so then the question is, what is Crooked Media, right?
Well, many of you may actually know because they're rather popular, but let's take a look at their website.
Here we are, Crooked.com.
We've got several podcasts, the latest episodes, Strict Scrutiny, What a Day, Offline with Jon Favreau.
They've got Pod Save America, Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams, Empire City, The Wilderness, What a Day, various newsletters.
Crooked Media is a Democrat progressive media company that produces some particularly prominent podcasts.
Notably, of course, is Pod Save America, where they posted this link to Vote Save America.
Well, all right, then vote.
Vote Save America's fundraising.
Donate to this relief effort.
Click this link.
It brings you to Vote Save America.
Well, what's Vote Save America?
According to influencewatch.org, Vote Save America is an online voter guide operated by the left of center political media company Crooked Media.
VSA's Adopt a State campaign steers activists who do not reside in battleground states to volunteer in the effort to win elections in those states for left-leaning candidates in 2020.
The website provides training videos and other teaching tools to prepare activists.
So let's jump over to votesaveamerica.com and see what they got working on right now.
On their front page, we can see this.
Let's get ready to work.
And you can make a difference now.
I want to donate to support the Anxiety Relief Program, or I'm interested in volunteering.
Anxiety relief, huh?
What is that all about?
Well, I don't like anxiety.
Let's click that button.
It leads us right to ActBlue.
Join VSA's Anxiety Relief Program.
It says...
We started the Anxiety Relief Program to fund grassroots organizations, campaigns, and voter protection efforts that are too often overlooked.
In 2024, because of our donors' generosity, Anxiety Relief Program raised $3.7 million.
That funding supported over 67 partner organizations in 14 states, 36 down-ballot candidates, 45 U.S. House campaigns, and 7 U.S. Senate campaigns.
Well, the presidential campaign and its allied organizations raised more than a billion dollars.
The rising tide didn't lift all boats.
And after Trump's reelection, the stakes have never been higher.
We need programs like the anxiety relief program to protect the progress we've made and fight harder than ever to support grassroots organizations and elect leaders who will stand up for all of us at every level of government.
unidentified
Wow.
Wow.
tim pool ▲ ● ▼
$3.7 million.
And they say it supported over 67 partner organizations in 14 states and 36 down-ballot candidates.
Well, I wonder how much of that 3.7 went to those candidates.
I mean...
We can look.
You know, we can take a look.
Well, here's what I can say right now.
According to the page, it says your contribution will benefit Vote Save America.
But it's an important thing to understand.
Most nonprofits are actually two nonprofits.
That's why you'll see things like Vote Save America.
But then on another page, it said Vote Save America action.
They do this because there's certain legal restrictions on what you can do with a 501c3 versus a 501c4.
Now, what's interesting to me is that they're saying that this is for Vote Save America.
There's also Vote Save America action.
Well, one of them is going to be a 501c3 and one of them is going to be a 501c4.
Those numbers, kind of weird, right?
That's the tax code designation for whether they are a A charitable entity, which is tax-deductible, or a charitable organization that may engage in some political activities.
One of the issues for me is that when you click the link to Vote Save America, it links you to Vote Save America action.
Like, how do you tell the difference between which one is the C3 and the C4? How do you know if what you're giving is tax-deductible or it's not tax-deductible and it's going to be used towards a political cause?
Okay, well, let's try this.
In a tweet from Jon Favreau, he says, in response to a guy who accused him of wrongdoing, that Vote Save America Action isn't even a political action committee.
It's a nonprofit.
All you have to do is click the link to see where the money goes.
Josh Peterson responded, wrong.
All you have to do is visit the bottom of their page to see they classify themselves as a political action committee.
Now, hold on.
There's two organizations here, and that's the confusion.
What Jon said is that Vote Save America Action is a charity.
And Vote Save America is a political action committee.
Oh boy!
This is where things get fun.
So I decided to pop over to Vote Save America PAC expenditures.
They raised $3.7 million, apparently, and it was used for political causes, implying it's a 501c4 political action committee, right?
Well, looks like it is.
Now, again, I don't know that they're doing anything wrong.
I just think it's interesting to point out.
When you go to OpenSecrets.org and you look at their expenditures, you can see that contributions make up 32.84%.
That's a lot of money.
$2.2 million.
Media makes up $2.2 million.
32%.
Media?
What does that mean?
Well, how about this?
Let's just scroll down and see where this political action committee is giving their money.
Well, heavens to Betsy!
From 2023 to 2024, the top recipient.
Crooked Media, receiving $2.8 million.
What?
I just got questions.
You know what I mean?
I just got questions about what's going on here, huh?
I mean, it's brilliant.
Don't get me wrong.
And again, I'm not saying they're doing anything wrong.
There's probably a lot of context we're missing.
I think that's fair.
I'd love to talk to these guys and break down how their money works, how their donation works.
unidentified
Like, what is all of this?
tim pool ▲ ● ▼
But it looks like...
They raised $3.7 million to their anxiety relief program, which I don't know how it's allocated, but when they bring in what appears to be around $8 million a year, the number may be off.
I'm trying to be very nice here.
And again, I didn't say anything wrong.
But then $2.8 million goes to their own podcast.
So hold on.
What did we discover?
Vote Save America is run by Crooked Media according to Influence Watch.
Maybe that's not true.
I don't know.
So Crooked Media...
Pod Save America promotes Vote Save America.
People can donate to Vote Save America.
And when that money goes to the cause, the cause is giving $2.8 million back to the podcast.
A hot dog.
That's just so brilliant.
I wish I thought of something like that.
You know what I could do?
Timcast could launch the, I don't know, Save Kittens worldwide.
Donate to Save Kittens in memory of Mr. Bocas.
And then when you donate that $100, well.
Guys, we charge sponsorship fees.
Save the Kittens Worldwide is going to have to pay for that shout-out I did.
So that $100 you gave, it's got to go to paid media right back in my pocket.
Wouldn't that be something?
I'm not saying that's exactly what they're doing.
I'm just saying, wow, now there's a racket, right?
I don't know exactly why they do what they do.
I'm sure Vote Save America could explain all of this and give us a reason why they do it.
it.
And I will stress progressives and Democrats probably love that they do it.
It's a means of propping up their media machine.
It's well done.
It's brilliant.
It's great organizing, not illegal.
And again, progressives and Democrats like that they're doing it.
You as someone who's not on that political side may think it's wrong or untoward, but they're probably in love with the idea and it's brilliant to them.
And I will stress it again.
I don't see them having done anything wrong.
It's just surprising to us to discover this brilliant machine.
Where they cycle this money around, raise money, build political lists.
It is masterfully done.
So therein lies the large controversy, my friends.
When you are donating through one of these politicians, they're routing you through ActBlue.
And therein lies the scandal.
The machine, oh boy.
It's well-oiled and it's functioning quite well.
Now there's a lot more going on with ActBlue that we didn't even get into, but...
I'm going to call it where I have to call it because this is already going long.
But let me just say, what Republicans try with things like WinRed, certainly you can criticize them for similar things if you're critical.
Their infrastructure is nowhere near as well-developed.
But hey, that's the game, isn't it?
To the victor go the spoils.
I'll wrap it up there.
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