Best of CRC Media Hits for January–February 2022

We’re trying something new with our media grab bag going forward: We’re going bimonthly instead of every month and offering tidbits from a larger pool of available “best of” media hits. Available options have increased so much that offering a rundown each month has become a daunting task. Instead, we’re going to offer them every two months—the best of the best.

There’s so much to choose from in both January and February of 2022. Everything from the “left” coast’s interest in ActBlue via The Bill Meyer Show to Time magazine’s interest in our thoughts on Elon Musk’s philanthropy to Jesse Watters’s intrigue over the financial downfall of Black Lives Matter. We were there for all of it.

“Black Lives Matter Is Lacking Accountability”
Jesse Watters Prime Time, Scott Walter (Guest), January 31, 2022

Capital Research Center President Scott Walter joins Jesse Watters: Primetime on Monday, January 31, 2022, to discuss the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) as reports began circulating BLM had transferred millions to a Canadian charity to purchase a $6 million mansion that was once owned by the Communist Party. Walter told Watters that one of the issues surrounding BLM as a charity is their lack of financial accountability, as the nonprofit has not always been transparent in their public tax filings with the IRS. “No accountability…they should have filed an IRS disclosure form before the end of last year; as far as anybody knows they haven’t done that,” Walter said.

“Elon Musk Gave Away $5.7 Billion Last Year. Here’s Why He’s Not Tweeting About It”
Time, Alejandro de la Garza, February 16, 2022

There may also be practical considerations involved. It’s not all that unusual for the ultra-rich not to reveal where their donated funds are going, notes Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, a Washington-based philanthropy watchdog group. “It opens you up to pleadings from charities,” he says. “Let’s say he gives to a charter school. Every other charter school in America is going to be pounding on his door.”

“You make one donation and then you’re on 15 mailing lists, and most people hate that,” Walter adds. “Well, when you have as many zeros in your donations as [Musk] does, imagine the relative pleading quotient that’s involved.”

“BLM: Breaking Open the Books”
Spicer and Co., Scott Walter (Guest), February 17, 2022

Washington insiders, experts, journalists, and power brokers to analyze the top headlines and key news.

“Zuckerbucks Shouldn’t Pay for Elections”
The Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board, January 3, 2022

CTCL “consistently gave bigger grants and more money per capita to counties that voted for Biden, ” says an analysis by the Capital Research Center. Its tally for Georgia, to pick one state, shows average grants of $1.41 per head in Trump areas and $5.33 in Biden ones. A conservative group in Wisconsin suggests that extra voter outreach funded by CTCL could have boosted Mr. Biden’s turnout there by something like 8,000 votes. It isn’t hard to see why they’re concerned.

On the other hand, CTCL’s biggest check was $19,294,627 to New York City, and in a scheme to flip America blue, that would be a waste of eight figures. Ditto for sizable checks to red areas. DeSoto County, Miss., population 185,000, went 61% for President Trump, and it received $347,752. The county installed plastic shields, bought more voting machines to prevent lines, and hired workers to sanitize equipment. “This money was a huge help,” a spokeswoman says, since “none of these items were budgeted.”

“The Black Lives Matter Movement Brought in Millions. So Where Is That Money Now?”
Sinclair: The National Desk (Syndicated), Kristine Frazao, February 21, 2022

In a video produced in Minneapolis by the Capital Research Center, a conservative group that studies non-profits, local community members are speaking out about what they call a “shakedown” by BLM.

“Right now they have absolutely no impact in what’s going on in the decimation of our community,” said Rev. Jerry McAfee, a pastor at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church.

“They collected some $30 million off of the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police. And they’ve put not one dollar in our community,” he said in the video posted online.

“These are local leaders who really are trying to help people’s lives. They are furious that tens of millions of dollars have gone to this national group which has completely ignored them in every possible way,” said Scott Walter, President of Capital Research Center, in an interview

“Schumer’s Massive Dark Money Haul”– Fox News, Parker Thayer (Guest), February 3/22

Capital Research Center’s Parker Thayer talks Chuck Schumer’s massive dark money haul – A Chuck Schumer-aligned nonprofit has hauled in massive amounts from anonymous donors, tax forms show.

“The New Resistance: Setting Criminals Free”
Townhall, Sarah Lee (Op-ed), January 8, 2022

Democrats on the Hill made a great show this week of their January 6 remembrance, holding vigils organized by antifa-affiliated activists and questioning why many of their GOP colleagues weren’t sharing in the organized mourning (they were instead attending former Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson’s funeral).

The theatrics are no doubt meant to be a momentary distraction from the so-called “summer of love” riots following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, when cities were set aflame, dozens were killed, and many of the offenders were released by charitable bond nonprofits like The Bail Project or the Minnesota Freedom Fund, the latter famously promoted by Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Special Edition: Elections in Jeopardy”
The Jacki Daily Show, Sarah Lee and Hayden Ludwig (Guests), February 2, 2022

Jacki is joined by multiple experts from the Capital Research Center: Sarah Lee details foreign influence and money that targets U.S. elections, and Hayden Ludwig gives an overview of the decades-long war on the Electoral College.

“The Left-Wing Dark Money Behind the Push to Kill the Filibuster”
Washington Examiner, Jason Snead and Scott Walter (Op-ed), January 22, 2022

Sixty left-wing groups led by Fix Our Senate recently issued a letter demanding the Senate abolish the filibuster so “democracy legislation” will pass and the party now narrowly controlling Congress can rewrite all 50 states’ election laws.

Two big secrets lie behind this push to kill the filibuster and, supposedly, protect “voting rights.” First, this lobbying campaign is driven not by grassroots groups of ordinary people but by left-wing megadonors and the AstroTurf groups they fund. The second secret: This scheme isn’t about “protecting Democracy” because overwhelming majorities of our democracy’s citizens support the state election laws that these deep-pocketed special interests want snuffed out.

This fight is about the 2022 and 2024 elections, which liberal activists fear will go badly for them unless all the dubious changes in election laws and practices they finagled in 2020 are repeated. Nse Ufot, who leads a get-out-the-vote group founded by Stacey Abrams, confessed to Politico, “If there isn’t a way for us to repeat what happened in November 2020, we’re f***ed.”

“Why ACTBlue Is the Favorite Dark Money Portal for the Left”
The Bill Meyer Show, Hayden Ludwig (Guest), February 18, 2022

Hayden Ludwig with Capital Research Center – Why ACT BLUE is the favorite Dark Money portal for the Left. Then we talk about a Hedrick school survey…yikes, your calls, Judy Ahrens on fixing the homeless trash buildup.

“The Big Money Behind Abortion Activism”
American Conservative, Hayden Ludwig (Op-ed), January 18, 2022

There’s no shortage of cash for the war on the unborn. That its biggest bankroller is the Wizard of Omaha—famed investor Warren Buffett—may surprise you.

Buffett is almost certainly the largest funder of abortion in human history. In the two decades since 2000 he has funneled an incredible $4.7 billion to abortion providers as well as the vast array of activist, lobbying, and research groups insulating them in Washington.

That’s enough to pay for close to 4 million 20-week abortions, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute, the leading pro-abortion think tank.

“Mark Zuckerberg’s $350 Million in Election Funding Went to Far-Left Activists, Not ‘Nonpartisan’ Outfits”
The Federalist, William Doyle, January 18, 2022

Even well-informed conservative groups who have studied the Center for Technology and Civic Life and its impact on the 2020 election tend to drastically understate the far-left partisan leanings of its founders and administrators. The nonprofit CTCL used approximately $350 million from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to manipulate the 2020 election in favor of President Joe Biden by funding local election offices, with most of the funding going to Democrat-run districts and functioning as a major get-out-the-vote effort.