This is a truly unbelievable story that should piss you off if you’re Republican.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, used FTX money to shift the Republican primaries away from Trump, America First candidates.
FTX is the cryptocurrency exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, the scam artist who sold crypto coins to investors, but there were no coins to purchase. In essence, the investors were unwittingly purchasing IOUs. Bankman-Fried then used that money to leverage loans for millions of dollars and then sent that money to Ukraine. He then somehow, probably with the help of the American Democratic Party, got the government of Ukraine to invest in FTX. Then, using that money, Bankman-Fried funded all the Democrats’ campaigns in the midterm elections.
Apparently, Mark Wetjen, the head of public policy and regulatory strategy at FTX, was invited with his family to McCarthy’s August Donor Retreat in Wyoming.
On Friday, The National File took to social media to tweet about this.
BREAKING:
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELKevin McCarthy Used #FTX #SBF Stolen to Defeat Conservatives in 2022.
Which Destroyed the so-called "Red Wave." pic.twitter.com/TDwJpKbRd4
— National File (@NationalFile) November 18, 2022
From the Washington Post:
Top allies of Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, worked this spring to deny Cawthorn a second term in office, after the Donald Trump-endorsed lawmaker made controversial comments about cocaine use and sex parties in Washington that led McCarthy to announce he had “lost my trust,” according to multiple Republicans briefed on the effort, which has not been previously reported.
GOP lobbyist Jeff Miller, one of McCarthy’s closest friends and biggest fundraisers, and Brian O. Walsh, a Republican strategist who works for multiple McCarthy-backed groups, were both involved in an independent effort to oppose Cawthorn as part of a broader project to create a more functioning GOP caucus next year, said the Republicans, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Targeting Cawthorn was part of a larger behind-the-scenes effort by top GOP donors and senior strategists to purge the influence of Republican factions that seek disruption and grandstanding, often at the expense of their GOP colleagues. The political machine around McCarthy has spent millions of dollars this year in a sometimes secretive effort to systematically weed out GOP candidates who could either cause McCarthy trouble if he becomes House speaker or jeopardize GOP victories in districts where a more moderate candidate might have a better chance at winning.
The allies close to McCarthy have sometimes taken steps to conceal their efforts, as they did in the Cawthorn case, with money passing from top GOP donors through organizations that do not disclose their donors or have limited public records, federal disclosures show…
…In the weeks before his primary, a group called Results for N.C. spent $1.7 million to defeat him and support his opponent. The National Association of Realtors, which gave $600,000 to CLF, gave $300,000 to the cause. A nonprofit that does not disclose its donors, Americans for a Balanced Budget, gave $830,000.
Most of the rest of the money, $700,000, came from Ryan Salame, an executive at crypto currency exchange FTX U.S., a major donor both to McCarthy’s own operation and to other groups backing McCarthy’s favored candidates. West Realm Shires Services, the corporate name used by FTX U.S., gave $750,000 to CLF in August. Advisers to Salame and FTX declined to comment.
McCarthy is currently twenty votes shy of being Speaker of the House. He needs 218 to become Speaker. As of this writing, he’s only got 198. He’s going to have to grovel to the House Freedom Caucus, and I don’t know if they will approve of him, especially after this news gets out.
