Photos have emerged allegedly showing protesters receiving cash from an organizer outside the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. Many are now decrying the action as they claim protesters are being paid to protest. But what is actually going on? Are they really being paid or is this something else entirely? Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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| Controversy has emerged after photos surfaced showing a protester from the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearing receiving cash from what appears to be an organizer. | ||
| Now we're hearing that three doctors have actually photographed, and yes there are photos, showing protesters receiving cash the morning of the first day of Supreme Court confirmation hearing. | ||
| These people were later seen protesting, and a lot of people are now claiming this is proof that the protesters are being paid, and there's even some proof to suggest that it's George Soros organizations that are funding these protesters. | ||
| But, while there is some truth to this, it's actually a little bit more complicated than that, and not really that nefarious, because it doesn't seem like these protesters are being paid to protest so much as they're receiving resources from nonprofits. | ||
| So let's break down this story and find what's actually going on because a lot of people are claiming it's a conspiracy and protesters are only there for money and that's probably not true and I'm going to show you why. | ||
| The story from Real Clear Politics. | ||
| Three Texas doctors. | ||
| We saw protesters paid in cash to disrupt Brett Kavanaugh hearing online to enter. | ||
| Author and commentator Adam W. Schindler interviews three Texas doctors who traveled to Washington, D.C. | ||
| to attend the confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh while waiting online. | ||
| They say they witnessed protesters being paid in cash to cause trouble in the hearing and in the public line to get in Tuesday on Capitol Hill. | ||
| RealClearPolitics then shows this tweet from Piper Parabo. | ||
| But Adam W. Schindler posted this tweet. | ||
| Proof the protesters were paid off in line. | ||
| Sarsour, Jepps Edison, Heidi Speaks, Woodrow, Wayward Winifred, proud to stand with them | ||
| and stand up for equal rights, stop Kavanaugh, Brett Beyer. | ||
| But Adam W. Schindler posted this tweet, proof the protesters were paid off in line. | ||
| And you can see this photo of someone who looks like they may be an organizer and a | ||
| woman and there appears to be a cash exchange. | ||
| You can see this man holding this large envelope, holding cash, and this woman holding what looks like a few bills. | ||
| Now, on the surface, we're just seeing two people and some money, and this doesn't really prove anything, but there's actually some more photos. | ||
| Schindler posted another photo. | ||
| He said, In this photo, we can also see a woman talking to the same man, And it appears like they may be holding something, though this doesn't look the same as the money exchange in the other photo. | ||
| Schindler posted, spoke to the protest organizer. | ||
| She confirmed handing out cash, but said they intend cash to be used to pay fines. | ||
| They know come when protesters break the law. | ||
| A small price to pay to be, quote, heard, I suppose. | ||
| Hashtag Kavanaugh confirmation. | ||
| RealClearPolitics highlights a few other tweets. | ||
| One says, I have to admit I am skeptical. | ||
| How do we know she didn't just buy tickets or a t-shirt? | ||
| How is this proof of anything? | ||
| Schindler responded, good question. | ||
| The pic itself does not prove anything. | ||
| The context does, and the eyewitnesses. | ||
| But in response to this, someone said, she was arrested inside there is video. | ||
| Her 17 cats are going to be lonely tonight. | ||
| Rather disrespectful, but someone did show this photo. | ||
| The woman we saw holding cash in front of this man who was an organizer was arrested, it appears, at the Kavanaugh hearing and escorted out. | ||
| And this is one of the photos that's been circulating. | ||
| We can see that she's being let out by police with her hands seemingly behind her back, so it does appear as though she was arrested. | ||
| And then we can see this photo they've highlighted, where the man is holding cash, and they highlight the cash being exchanged. | ||
| But freelance journalist Nick Monroe dug a little deeper. | ||
| He said, What Adam Schindler didn't realize is he was witnessing something big. | ||
| He just saw someone pay a Kavanaugh hearing protester, someone working for George Soros. | ||
| He said the man handing the money to the Kavanaugh hearing protester is Vinay Krishnan, consultant organizer at Center for Popular Democracy, an organization on the record as having received funding from George Soros. | ||
| He then shows this photo showing an image of Vinay Krishnan, social justice attorney, showing that he does work for Center for Popular Democracy, alongside this article that says, The Center for Popular Democracy Action Fund, 501c4, sister organization of the Center for Popular Democracy, a New York-based nonprofit that receives the bulk of its funding from George Soros, announced at their Spring Gala Tuesday that they will be heading up the new $80 million anti-Trump network that will span 32 states and have 48 local partners, CNN reported. | ||
| However, it's his first tweet where we need to actually discuss what's happening, when he said he just saw someone pay a Kavanaugh hearing protester, someone working for George Soros. | ||
| This is technically true, but now I'm gonna break down what actually is, well, what's likely to have occurred. | ||
| According to the man who took the photo of what appears to be a cash exchange, he was told by an organizer that they're paying the fines for people who get arrested. | ||
| This is totally normal. | ||
| I know a lot of people on the right are shocked to hear this, and I mean this sincerely. | ||
| They don't realize that there are non-profit organizations that often supply funding for bail. | ||
| That people will show up to the police station and bail you out, or they will give you cash so that you can bail yourself out. | ||
| Honestly, I don't know exactly how it works. | ||
| But in my experience, having covered many of these protests, organizations giving out a small amount of cash so that when someone gets arrested they can bail themselves out or pay a ticket is actually relatively normal. | ||
| And you might not agree with it. | ||
| And normal doesn't mean ethically right or moral. | ||
| It just means that it happens all the time. | ||
| At most protests when things like this happen. | ||
| So we do need to differentiate between protesters that are paid, that are only there because they're receiving money, and protesters who are only there because their costs are covered. | ||
| There is an ethical dilemma here. | ||
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| But now back to the story. | ||
| CNN says, The group lends financial support for travel, accommodation, legal training, and bail. | ||
| members. They fundraise off of their email list and have sent six fundraising | ||
| emails in the last two days that have raised more than six figures according | ||
| to Wong. The group lends financial support for travel, accommodation, legal | ||
| training, and bail. The arrests Monday resulted in a $35 to $50 bail which the | ||
| group paid for. So let's be reasonable about what is actually going on. | ||
| I really don't believe that the protesters are being paid to protest. | ||
| When you say it that way, it sounds like they're not there because they believe in what they're doing. | ||
| It sounds like they pulled some random people off the streets and said, hey, I'll give you 50 bucks to start screaming. | ||
| But that's probably not what happened. | ||
| From what I was able to gather, it looks like the photo of these protesters and the apparent money exchange, because honestly, we don't even know that money was exchanged in that photo, it seems like that happened before the protest, which says to me this is another instance of an organization saying, here's some money, If you get arrested, if you get a ticket, you can pay the fine. | ||
| And that's what we're going to support you with. | ||
| But there still is the ethical dilemma. | ||
| Because would these people protest? | ||
| Would they stand up in D.C. | ||
| and yell if they did not have the support? | ||
| So while you can say that they're receiving money for protesting, and that's technically true, it does frame it in a rather incorrect light. | ||
| And what ends up happening when people post tweets saying that this is a guy who works for George Soros funding protesters, the average person who doesn't understand the nuance of what's actually happening will literally believe it is a paycheck, it is profit for an individual to yell. | ||
| And that is likely not the case. | ||
| And when you say this, people on the left who know exactly how these organizations fund protests are laughing because they're not really getting paid, they're just having their costs covered. | ||
| When I was at Occupy Wall Street, there were people on the right saying that George Soros was funding the protests. | ||
| And while it's true that there were people who worked for non-profit organizations that have received funding from George Soros, who were down there, you see how that trail works? | ||
| The protesters weren't being paid to do it. | ||
| What ends up happening is that people on the left start making jokes, a meme about where's my Soros check. | ||
| And this is a common inside joke among the left when they're accused of being paid by George Soros. | ||
| So here's what likely happens. | ||
| George Soros does fund nonprofits. | ||
| These nonprofits then do as they see fit. | ||
| George Soros isn't commanding people and pulling puppet strings so much as he's just giving funding and resources to these groups, who then are able to hire organizers who can coordinate with actual activists and tell them, we'll take care of you. | ||
| They're not giving them a profit, but they are giving them the resources to protest. | ||
| And whether or not you think that's morally wrong is an opinion. | ||
| People on the left see nothing wrong with it. | ||
| It's just something that they do so that activists don't face a financial burden when they do protest. | ||
| But I want to make one thing clear. | ||
| The insinuation that these protesters are being paid to protest makes it seem like they don't care about the cause, and that is absolutely not true. | ||
| That is fake news. | ||
| These people are not receiving a profit. | ||
| These people maybe are having fun, they're having their travel and food covered, and maybe they wouldn't protest if someone didn't cover those costs. | ||
| But they're not profiting off of protesting. | ||
| These are people who believe in what they're protesting, but are being granted the resources to protest. | ||
| There seems to be a belief among many people that I've associated with the right, that if you're going to protest, you're putting yourself on the line and you're taking a risk to yourself to stand up for what you believe in. | ||
| And that's not necessarily the case. | ||
| While many of these people are going to get arrested and do face some ramifications for their protest, they're granted the resources they need to do the protest. | ||
| And in my opinion, a small amount of these people probably would not protest were it not for this funding. | ||
| But all I ask, after all of this, is that we actually frame what's going on in a rational and fair way. | ||
| You can be mad about George Soros-funded organizations covering the costs for protesters by all means. | ||
| Just frame it that way, because that's what's actually happening. | ||
| But let me know what you think in the comments below. | ||
| Just because this one incident is likely not an instance of protesters being paid, doesn't mean that there are not. | ||
| Other instances where protesters were paid. | ||
| We have seen reports it happens where people will post like a craigslist ad looking for seat fillers and bodies to rally and they'll actually pay people like a day rate to do it. | ||
| Seat filling and rally filling are different from what we're seeing here but it's possible that some people actually do get paid to protest. | ||
| I just think it's a bit It's extremely less likely in a circumstance like this. | ||
| When you see rallies with huge groups of people, it's much more possible then. | ||
| When you see meetings with a bunch of, you know, auditorium seats, it's much more likely then. | ||
| With people actually showing up and getting arrested, I really, really doubt people are willing to get arrested because they're gonna get a $50 paycheck at the end of the day, and I really doubt anyone would need to pay for this. | ||
| Think about this. | ||
| There are more than enough members of the resistance that are willing to do this for free. | ||
| They don't need to pay anyone to do it. | ||
| All they had to do was reach out through emails and says, who wants to go protest Brett Kavanaugh? | ||
| And I'm sure they got a huge list of people willing to do it. | ||
| And then they filled up a couple buses and paid all the costs. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| So comment below and let me know what you think about that. | ||
| Do you think it's wrong? | ||
| We'll keep the conversation going. | ||
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