Inside the Republican false-flag effort to turn off Kamala Harris voters

[applegrove]

Inside the Republican false-flag effort to turn off Kamala Harris voters

A multipronged dark money effort by advisers to Elon Musk targeted liberals, Jews, Muslims and Black voters with ads that were not quite what they seemed.

November 15, 2024

By Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/15/republican-ads-false-flag/

"SNIP...........

Muslims in Michigan began seeing pro-Israel ads this fall praising Vice President Kamala Harris for marrying a Jewish man and backing the Jewish state. Jews in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, saw ads from the same group with the opposite message: Harris wanted to stop U.S. arms shipments to Israel.

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Another group promoted “Kamala’s bold progressive agenda” to conservative-leaning Donald Trump voters, while a third filled the phones of young liberals with videos about how Harris had abandoned the progressive dream. Black voters in North Carolina were told Democrats wanted to take away their menthol cigarettes, while working-class White men in the Midwest were warned that Harris would support quotas for minorities and deny them Zyn nicotine pouches.

What voters had no way of knowing at the time was that all of the ads were part of a single, $45 million effort created by political advisers to Tesla founder Elon Musk who had previously worked on the presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), according to a presentation about the group’s efforts obtained by The Washington Post.

The project, funded with anonymous donations, micro-targeted messages across the battleground states, often with ads that appeared to be something they were not — a tactic the organizers sometimes referred to internally as “false positives.”

.............SNIP"

[ColinC]

1. Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where those ads came from tho

[July]

5. And who are the geniuses who take a commercial as gospel?

Trump lovers is the answer. But the commercials were laughable.

[spooky3]

9. I think many people who are low info but not necessarily Trumpies

Likely were influenced by these ads.

[Takket]

2. this was well known BEFORE the election. people were posting about it on DU

So thanks to the Wapo for pointing out NOW what they could have BEFORE the election, but chose not to because they wanted to sell papers for the enxt 4 years talking about what a swindler musk and drumpf are.

[applegrove]

4. So should we talk about it now so it becomes

bedrock institutional information on elections?

[brush]

6. Yes we should. Campaign veterans know rethugs are full of dirty tricks...

but it's good to keep preaching that gospel to newer voters getting involved in and listening to campaign info.

[Easterncedar]

3. I saw the effects on friends and family

Young west coast liberals and midwestern and New York communities with Lebanese connections. It was shockingly effective messaging. I couldn’t break through.

[Skittles]

15. it pains me to see how easily manipulated people are

it does NOT bode well for democracy

[Initech]

7. Elon Musk is a chaos agent and Putin asset.

[oldmanlynn]

8. More important

Where is the Democratic response to all of this? How will they counter these kinds of situations during election elections? Republicans continue to use these tactics because they work.

[SunSeeker]

10. And people fell for it. Ug.

[Woodycall]

11. Well, here's what I have to say about this.

It's been welling up inside me for sometime now and, I am well aware that to most, I am a "newbe" and I'm I am likely to get flamed/blocked/post removed/warned by the administrators/etc. But I have to express this. Anyone living in this country, that immigrated from another country, or were naturalized by other means, and now enjoys the benefits and protections of US citizenship and is eligible to vote, and supports the goals/aims/philosophies/etc. of their country of origin over the long-established norms of this country and the principles of the Constitutional Government of the United States of America, can go fuck themselves! And that means anyone, from fucking anywhere!

[Skittles]

14. welcome to DU

[Woodycall]

17. Thanks but, I was actually here a long, long time ago...

...but I got "ran out" by the PTB for being too "radical in my views". Now it seems that I'm kind of "mild" and "mainstream" on this forum. What a difference a decade makes I guess. BTW, I haven't changed...

[Skittles]

19. oh I believe that

creeping fascism will do that

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. Welcome, and I totally agree.

People who make a big deal about being a "hyphenated-American" have really started to bother me recently (yeah, I'm looking at you, Dearborn, Michigan). If someone is so damned concerned about something in their country of origin that they feel they have to screw up this country to make their point, I refer them to an old airline ad: "Delta is ready when you are."

Sooner or later, their loyalty is going to wind up on one side of that hyphen or the other.

[Buddyzbuddy]

12. Just another fake American

He loves this country so much he had to renounce his birth country to gain citizenship. Only to use the resources at his disposal to destroy what makes our country so desirable and unique. Our freedom and diversity. Leon's talent is to adopt somebody else's idea and claim it as his own. Much like stinky (tfg) gets in front of a parade and claims everybody wants to follow him. Smoke and mirrors. That's what we need to expose. I think or hope that the egos of the masters of the universe will lead to their downfall.

[Woodycall]

16. That fucker too!

And the fucking international NAZI, Rupert Murdoch!

[Skittles]

13. anyone who fell for that garbage IS A FUCKING STUPID POS

W T F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jack Valentino]

18. I never saw any of these ads in Michigan, but perhaps they only ran in Dearborn

which has the largest muslim population in the state, and possibly the whole country---

"Muslims in Michigan began seeing pro-Israel ads this fall praising Vice President Kamala Harris for marrying a Jewish man and backing the Jewish state"




Democrats need to take the gloves off when it comes to political advertising and other matters--
Nobody seems to win any campaigns by taking the "high road" anymore.

We don't need to necessarily outright LIE---
but if we DO, there's NO electoral downside--- the GQP has proven that!

There should have been some kind of response to the GQP's anti-trans surgery ads--
possibly an ad highlighting all the cases of child sexual abuse perpetrated
by Republican politicians and their supporters---

YEAH, that had nothing to do with their anti-trans surgery ads,
but they certainly would have hit harder IMHO-- or at least neutralized those anti-Kamala ads.



Is it more important to stop child-RAPE by Republicans,
or to stop some man from becoming a woman via surgery ??

Once again the Democrats came to a gunfight with a butter knife

[applegrove]

20. Some of the ads were texts to someone's phone. Microtargetting.

[Jack Valentino]

21. So we got owned by concentrating too much on MACRO-targeting....

I hope we learn from that


Still, we need to hit harder with the UGLY TRUTHS about Republicans---

they seem to love raping women and children,
but the vast majority of the country is less informed than they should be
about such things.

My specific example here shows that Democrats could "GET UGLY"
and still be telling the truth!


GRRRRRRR

[applegrove]

22. We need to do all targetting. And I am curious

what the FBI will find in the vetting of Pete Hegseth.

[soandso]

24. An alcoholic

[Jack Valentino]

26. I am an alcoholic,

who is NOT attempting to become Secretary Of Defense,
or any other public office...



BUT--- I'm not a MORNING alcoholic--
which makes me more qualified than Pete,
who appears to be a 24-hour alcoholic-- other than those hours which he is passed out

[soandso]

29. And I don't think Pete

has admitted to himself that he is an alcoholic.

[applegrove]

30. Yup.

[soandso]

31. Addiction is a bitch

I'm married to an addict and have known many others, as well as I've been in intensive outpatient groups with my husband. Doesn't matter what the drug of choice is, it's non stop stories of chaos and ruin. Very hard to admit one has the problem.

[Jack Valentino]

25. We've heard more than enough about Pete already---

to disqualify him from his proposed office, for anyone with 2 brains cells to rub together--

but will there be anything more 'surprising'? Who knows.

[soandso]

23. Other than the bigger and bigger money spent in campaigns

I don't see any of that as a surprise or anything unusual. Politics and campaigns are blood sport and marketing/advertising is always about psychological manipulation. It's on the voters to wise up. Good luck with that.

[Kaleva]

27. The anti-trans ads flooded YouTube

Ad after ad about Harris supporting paying for sex change operations for prisoners