Matt Margolis writes for PJMedia.com about a dubious partisan response to the California wildfires.
On Saturday, California Governor Gavin Newsom made the ill-conceived decision to appear in studio on Pod Save America, a podcast hosted by former Barack Obama staffers. It was a bizarre move to make while large parts of Los Angeles County are still burning. …
… [H]e threw local officials under the bus while presenting himself as an innocent bystander amid a string of government failures. Apparently no one in charge cares more about containing the fires than making sure someone else gets blamed for it. But, even worse, the podcast hosts took the opportunity to solicit donations, promoting a fundraising page hosted by ActBlue, the party’s scandal-ridden fundraising platform. The move has sparked widespread outrage, as many Democrats are pushing people to donate to wildfire “relief funds” funneled through ActBlue, raising serious concerns.
As Barack Obama’s former chief of staff once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” and it looks like Democrats are exploiting the crisis to line their own pockets. Soon after, other prominent Democrats were posting pleas for donations, like … one from Sen. Elizabeth Warren. …
… If you click through on the link, you’ll see the page is branded with Warren’s Senate campaign logo. At the very least, Warren is exploiting the situation to promote her own campaign and grow her mailing list. But it’s likely far worse.
The page claims that the “full donation will directly support” the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and United Way of Greater Los Angeles. However, in light of the recent fundraising scandals connected to ActBlue, it wouldn’t surprise me if ActBlue is, at the very least, still taking a transaction fee. But are the political campaigns also getting a little something more than just addresses for their email lists?
At the very least, we should question why Democrats and left-wing organizations are pushing people to donate to relief funds through a partisan fundraising platform rather than directly.