In weeks close to the election, writes Robert Maguire, "voters in swing states like Nevada and North Carolina began seeing eerie promotional travel ads as they scrolled through their Facebook feeds or clicked through Google sites."
"Travel ads," for "The Islamic State of France," and
Another, for the "Islamic State of Germany," invited visitors to "celebrate the arranged marriages of future jihadi soldiers" at a pork-and alcohol-free Oktoberfest.The lurid videos (posted in Maguire's piece) were underwitten by a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, Secure America Now. Maguire obtained tax records for the group, showing $2 million donated by pro-Trump dark money groups, and two large individual contributors: Mercer($2 million) and Ronald Laude ($1.1 million).
"You can even sell your daughter or sister to be married," the ad notes enthusiastically while showing the covered face of a woman wearing a black burka.
And just to bring it all home, days before the election, the group made an "Islamic States of America" travel promo, where Syrian refugees have overtaken America. In the ad, the iconic Hollywood sign reads "Allahu Akbar," and the Statue of Liberty wears a burka and holds a star and crescent. In the video, Ground Zero in New York City is shown as place where citizens can "celebrate our Islamic victories."
SAN reported more than $1 million in political spending to the Federal Election Commission in 2016 — in the form of "independent expenditures," which means they appealed directly to voters, asking them to support or oppose specific candidates for office.Whatever chicanery is being slipped past supposed regulators, there still seems to be a nice surplus for next time.
While there are some differences between what the FEC and the IRS consider political spending, such direct calls for voters to support or oppose candidates are generally considered to be unambiguously political. Yet, in filing their tax returns, SAN told the IRS it only spent $124,192 on politics.
The grotesque post election attempt to discount that Trump's political origin story was a racist lie will continue to damage the country until it is corrected. Mercer was not targeting economic insecurity here, he had the data to know fear mongering works.https://t.co/MGg6Y8ls9G— Schooley (@Rschooley) April 5, 2018
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