Democratic Senator Caught in Blatant Hypocrisy After Attacking Trump Fundraiser
President Donald Trump was in Missouri Tuesday and used part of his time there to stump for GOP Senate candidate Josh Hawley, including appearing at a fundraiser for Hawley’s campaign against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.
Tickets for the event started at $1,000, but for $10,000 donors would get the chance to have their picture taken with Trump.
In today’s land of political fundraising, those prices are not pretty standard — for either party. Yes, these are not the kind of donations the majority of voters can or are willing to make, but these events are not designed for the masses. They’re designed for those who regularly spend thousands to support their favorite candidates.
McCaskill sent an email to her supporters on the eve of Trump’s visit, and her verbage was clearly designed to raise the hackles of — and play on the sympathies of — middle-class voters.
“My jaw dropped when I saw how much money Hawley has been demanding for a chance to rub elbows with Trump,” the email read. “Tickets go for $1,000 or more. Seriously?!”
“It’s clear Hawley’s relying on far-right billionaires … to bankroll his campaign,” she added.
“Personally, I’ve always depended on a few bucks at a time from grassroots folks like you to keep me fighting another day. But the truth is, we will lose in November unless we catch up to Hawley’s fundraising ASAP.”
There’s lots to dissect in this message, beginning with verbage such as “demanding,” “far-right billionaires,” and “grassroots folks like you,” which are all designed to paint various “us against them” images.
There’s also some deceit. For instance, despite her claim in the email that she needs to “catch up to Hawley’s fundraising ASAP,” the Washington Free Beacon reports McCaskill has consistently outraised Hawley and has four times as much in cash on hand as his campaign.
But what McCaskill conveniently left out of her email plea is the fact she’s been collecting much larger donations than what Hawley’s event would generate.
For instance, McCaskill was joined for a fundraiser earlier this year by former President Barack Obama in Beverly Hills — which is not exactly a suburb of Kansas City. Campaign finance filings indicate that her hosts included Hollywood film executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, who shelled out $98,600 to the McCaskill 2018 Victory, a committee that raises funds for McCaskill as well as Missouri Democrats.
The families of the two other listed hosts, filmmakers Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams, also contributed $98,600, according to campaign filings collected by the Free Beacon.
Haim Saban, a California billionaire who was the mastermind behind the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” franchise, contributed $60,000.
Those figures must have really made McCaskill’s jaw drop.
Meanwhile, figures uncovered by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch show Spielberg has been donating money to McCaskill since 2006, including $5,400 last May 30. Katzenberg has given $12,500 during the span of the last three senatorial elections for McCaskill.
Apparently, getting donations from billionaires isn’t bad as long as they’re liberal billionaires.
Look, fundraising is the sausage making of politics. There’s a lot about it that makes you turn up your nose. But it’s a necessary and critical part of running a successful campaign.
And one of the things about it that makes you turn up your nose is the insincerity of fundraising messages like this one from McCaskill, who is all too willing to criticize a candidate for having a sitting president (who is pretty darn popular in Missouri, I might add) raise money for them but tries to keep her constituents in the dark about her Hollywood fundraisers with a former president.
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