A multi-million dollar Hillary Clinton super PAC has graduated from arguing with voters on social media to offering cash for information they can use to smear Donald Trump.
In what “seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet’s worst instincts,” according to the LA Times, the “Correct The Record” super PAC functions as the Clinton campaign’s dedicated online attack dogs. Their mission? Funnel a million dollars just into employing people to disagree with anyone who says anything negative about their chosen candidate on the Internet.
According to Brian Donahue, Craft Media/Digital’s chief executive:
It is meant to appear to be coming organically from people and their social media networks in a groundswell of activism, when in fact it is highly paid and highly tactical. That is what the Clinton campaign has always been about. It runs the risk of being exactly what their opponents accuse them of being: a campaign that appears to be populist but is a smokescreen that is paid and brought to you by lifetime political operatives and high-level consultants.
Correct The Record is already treading on thin ice, using a campaign finance loophole that allows them to coordinate directly with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. While Clinton publicly pushes for campaign finance reform, her own campaign is attempting to subvert the rules already in place to make it appear that she has more popular support on social media than she actually does.
It’s not specifically an anti-Trump effort. Correct The Record has already infamously gone head-to-head with Bernie Sanders supporter Tim Robbins. He wasn’t thrilled, and his blistering response did a pretty good job of exposing their blatantly unethical practices:
#FeelTheBern @CorrectRecord pic.twitter.com/KNaPsVPSeS
— Tim Robbins (@TimRobbins1) April 25, 2016
Now the group has put out a public bounty on — in their own words — “unreported video or audio of Donald Trump,” via any “usable, undoctored video or audio” that they can get their hands on, so long as it’s “legally obtained or is legally accessible.” If you have dirt they can use, they’re officially ready to pay for it.
Of course, this push comes directly after the latest batch of leaked DNC e-mails, an ongoing thorn in the side of a candidate that even Colin Powell would rather not vote for. As polls begin to turn against the Democratic nominee and concerns for her health become a primary subject of the national conversation, this move looks perhaps a bit more desperate than intended.
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