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Tag: america pac
March 19, 2025
Politics

RINO Senator Vows to Fight Trump’s DOGE Because Firing Bureaucrats Is ‘Traumatizing.’

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a vocal critic of President Donald J. Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within the Republican Party, addressed a potential primary challenge funded by DOGE frontman Elon Musk during a press conference in Juneau, Alaska, on Tuesday. Murkowski, known for her Republican-in-name-only (RINO) stances that often frustrate her Senate Republican colleagues, struck a defiant tone regarding a potential primary threat.

“It may be that Elon Musk has decided he’s going to take the next billion dollars that he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against Lisa Murkowski,” the Alaska Republican said, referring to herself in the third person. Murkowski continued: “And you know what? That may happen. But I’m not giving up one minute, one opportunity, to try to stand up for Alaskans.”

Murkowski also commented on what she perceives as her GOP colleagues’ reticence to voice opposition to President Trump and his White House, attributing this silence to fears of facing primary challenges. “They’re looking at how many things are being thrown at me, and it’s like, ‘Maybe I just better duck and cover,'” she remarked.

Regarding DOGE, Murkowski reiterated her disapproval of recent cost-cutting measures, citing them as a source of undue “anxiety.” She criticized the supposedly indiscriminate and, in her view, sometimes unlawful termination of federal employees in Alaska, claiming they are “traumatizing people” and “leaving holes in our communities.”

Notably, Murkowski has faced little political opposition in Alaska since her write-in defeat of Republican Joe Miller in 2010. Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system—which Murkowski pushed to implement—gives her an additional edge in the state, allowing her to draw support from political moderates and Democrats.

Nonetheless, she acknowledged the potential influence of Musk’s capital, with his super PAC—America PAC—declaring its intent to actively participate in future primaries aimed at unseating Republicans who are insufficiently aligned with Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda.

WATCH:

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Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a vocal critic of President Donald J. Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within the Republican Party, addressed a potential primary challenge funded by DOGE frontman Elon Musk during a press conference in Juneau, Alaska, on Tuesday. Murkowski, known for her Republican-in-name-only (RINO) stances that often frustrate her Senate Republican colleagues, struck a defiant tone regarding a potential primary threat. show more
October 23, 2024
Election 2024
Lawfare

Biden-Harris DOJ Targets Elon Musk PAC Over Voter Sweepstakes.

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a warning to Elon Musk’s America PAC, cautioning that it may be violating laws prohibiting payments or incentives to influence voting. The warning was conveyed in a letter from Robert Heberle, who leads the DOJ’s election crimes branch, to America PAC’s attorney Chris Gober, and emphasized that offering anything of value to sway voting decisions contravenes federal laws.

There are no immediate legal actions indicated in the warning. However, Heberle outlines potential penalties for violating U.S. voting laws, including fines and imprisonment for up to five years. This comes as Musk, a technology industry billionaire and significant supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, has been promoting a $1 million sweepstakes targeting registered voters in swing states. The initiative, presented through the super PAC’s account on Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) and at rallies, asks registered voters to sign a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments.

Election law experts have raised concerns about the legality of the sweepstakes’ requirements. On his blog, seasoned election law expert Rick Hasen suggested that participants needing to demonstrate their voter registration could likely contravene voting regulations.

The DOJ is yet to publicly comment on the situation. Representatives from America PAC have repeatedly maintained that the $1 million sweepstakes contest is legal and in accordance with U.S. election laws.

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The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a warning to Elon Musk’s America PAC, cautioning that it may be violating laws prohibiting payments or incentives to influence voting. The warning was conveyed in a letter from Robert Heberle, who leads the DOJ's election crimes branch, to America PAC’s attorney Chris Gober, and emphasized that offering anything of value to sway voting decisions contravenes federal laws. show more
October 23, 2024
Election 2024

‘GPS Spoofing’ Plagues GOP Canvassing App – What Does it Mean?

A video allegedly showing an America PAC vote canvasser in Nevada using GPS spoofing technology to simulate door-to-door voter outreach without actually visiting the locations is raising concerns President Donald J. Trump’s get-out-the-vote operation may be compromised. First obtained by the Guardian newspaper, the footage appears to be an instructional video outlining how users can download an application to falsely position themselves at targeted addresses, complete with fabricated survey responses.

America PAC—backed by a $75 million contribution from tech billionaire Elon Musk—has largely spearheaded voter outreach efforts for Trump’s presidential campaign in several critical swing states. If the use of GPS spoofing applications is widespread among canvassers, it could seriously undermine efforts to mobilize Trump’s voter base in critical battleground states like Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

Despite the release of the video, the full extent of the spoofing practice remains uncertain, largely due to the difficulty of detecting such activities without corroborative data from alternative tracking systems. However, the Guardian notes it casts doubt on the authenticity of voter interactions reported by America PAC’s field operations.

In response to these developments, America PAC, alongside its vendors Blitz, Patriot Grassroots, Echo Canyon, and the Synapse Group, issued a statement asserting their use of advanced auditing tools designed to identify fraudulent activities and ensure accountability within their operations. Additionally, Blitz—which oversees canvassing efforts in Arizona and Nevada—employs the Quickbooks Workforce app that includes tracking features—although these can be circumvented by disabling location services.

America PAC is not alone in facing such challenges; GPS spoofing has been a longstanding issue in political canvassing that is costly to monitor effectively.

Image by Bret Hartman / TED.

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A video allegedly showing an America PAC vote canvasser in Nevada using GPS spoofing technology to simulate door-to-door voter outreach without actually visiting the locations is raising concerns President Donald J. Trump's get-out-the-vote operation may be compromised. First obtained by the Guardian newspaper, the footage appears to be an instructional video outlining how users can download an application to falsely position themselves at targeted addresses, complete with fabricated survey responses. show more
desantis
September 7, 2024
Raheem J. Kassam
Election 2024

DeSantis Operatives Have Taken Over a Key Trump-World PAC, And People Are Pissed.

A Super PAC supporting President Trump’s election efforts, funded by billionaire Elon Musk, has hired a swathe of former DeSantis for president activists, including the chiefs of the Florida Governor’s disastrously run political action committee ‘Never Back Down.’

The details, which were quietly reported on by the New York Times in July, have been further teased out by Puck News this week, with author Tara Palmeri noting:

“…it baffled many inside the Trump campaign when Chris LaCivita blessed the mid-July shake-up at Musk’s America PAC. DeSantis’s former campaign manager Generra Peck and former senior advisor Phil Cox subsequently fired all the existing vendors, including canvassers, and dismantled the existing ground operation, only to bring in their own people just a month and a half before early voting is set to begin.”

Trump was reportedly furious with the move to hire a cadre of DeSantis backers, especially given the Trump campaign’s early pledge that none of those people would ever get jobs with Trump or his administration. Now, it seems, they’ve hired almost all their top associates, with the ‘P2‘ firm run by Cox and Peck being used as a primary group for the Musk-backed America PAC.

“Also involved… is Charlie Spies, a senior election lawyer for the Republican Party,” The New York Times revealed. The National Pulse has reported on Spies and his previous anti-Trump positions, leading to his ouster from an RNC role recently handed to him by Trump campaign chiefs Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.

The National Pulse first reported on Cox, his group, and its relationships with the Bush, Rove, Romney, and Ryan families back in April 2023. Now, Cox is inside the Trump campaign, alongside a number of other leading DeSantis-world names such as Peck and failed pollster Ryan Tyson.

The move was celebrated by LaCivita, who tweeted out the New York Times report, adding: “…the New Program 100% better than the old gang. Solidly support this effort!”

The tweet appears to have been a dig at former vendors who were Trump loyalists. LaCivita is no stranger to pushing out pro-Trump voices and replacing them with neoconservative and establishment names, having done similar at the RNC. He has also openly trashed Project 2025–made up of primarily former Trump White House staff–and funneled cash through outside groups like Preserve America, funded by Miriam Adelson.

“It’s a limp-dick version of Never Back Down, an organization that everyone universally sees as a failure,” a Trump campaign source told Puck this week. “It’s a model you ridiculed, and then you bring in the same team to replicate it?”

“[Cox and Peck] pulled a power move, but it was in the middle of July, when all of this stuff was going on with Biden and Trump,” said another source, speaking on why the infiltration of DeSantis characters had not been reported on sooner.

The reliance on DeSantis ally-run outside groups has caused all manner of consternation in Trump-world, with many seeing the reliance on the PAC as a repetition of the same mistake made by Governor DeSantis, who hired Jeff Roe and others to try the same system, instead of running the operations centrally, out of the campaign itself, as is traditional.

The New York Times reported America PAC’s involvement in Wisconsin back in July. Since the takeover, Trump appears to have slumped against Harris in the Badger State.

The report also claimed that “America PAC has also been active or is planning to be active in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.”

The Trump campaign is also relying on more loyal voices and groups, including Chris Buskirk’s Turnout for America and Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, to aid its efforts across the country.

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A Super PAC supporting President Trump's election efforts, funded by billionaire Elon Musk, has hired a swathe of former DeSantis for president activists, including the chiefs of the Florida Governor's disastrously run political action committee 'Never Back Down.' show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
Remember: Susie Wiles used to work for Ron DeSantis
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