{"id":4962,"date":"2026-05-23T03:16:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=4962"},"modified":"2026-05-23T03:16:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T03:16:56","slug":"aipac-ai-crypto-and-gambling-are-hiding-their-big-election-spends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=4962","title":{"rendered":"AIPAC, AI, Crypto and Gambling Are Hiding Their Big Election Spends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n  <iframe src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/intercept-presents\/aipac-ai-crypto-and-gambling-are-hiding-their-big-election-s?accentColor=111111&amp;bgColor=f5f6f7&amp;logo=false\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"acast-player__embed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(acast)[0] --><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"has-underline\">Republican Rep. Thomas<\/span> Massie was decisively ousted on Tuesday night in his Kentucky primary, a win for President Donald Trump, who had launched an all-out attack on the congressman for his role in pushing for the release of the Epstein files. But in Pennsylvania, the left had a lot to celebrate. <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/pennsylvania-democratic-primary-results-chris-rabb-sharif-street\/\">Chris Rabb<\/a> won by nearly 15 points in Philadelphia in a major win for progressives. And Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter and union head, sailed to victory with the support of both the left and moderates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mysterious super PACs with ties to Republican donors poured millions into influencing the election results in both states with varying degrees of success. In Kentucky, AIPAC\u2019s super political action committee and two other groups backed by pro-Israel donors <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/thomas-massie-loses-election-results-trump-aipac-kentucky\/\">spent more than $15 million in opposition to Massie<\/a> or in support of his opponent, according to Federal Election Commission reports released through Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Pennsylvania, advertisements from <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/pennsylvania-democratic-primary-results-chris-rabb-sharif-street\/\">Lead Left<\/a> \u2014 a super PAC that reportedly has ties to Republican donors \u2014\u00a0dropped ads attacking two of the candidates as not progressive enough, leading to speculation that Republicans were trying to prop up a weaker candidate for the general election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington and politics reporter Matt Sledge break down the contentious primary races, the record-level campaign spending and how <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/18\/super-pac-election-spending-midterms-aipac-ai-crypto\/\">obscure groups funding the midterm elections<\/a> are hiding donors\u2019 tracks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGroups can kind of game campaign finance deadlines and create super PACs to funnel money to other super PACs so that reporting deadlines are missed and use these \u2018pop-up super PACs\u2019 to ensure that ordinary voters never find out who is funding ads before a campaign happens,\u201d says Sledge. \u201cSometimes there\u2019s even a second layer of pop-up super PACness where those bland-sounding groups send money to other bland-sounding groups. God help you if you\u2019re an ordinary voter trying to track all this money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The consequential U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United 16 years ago has allowed courts to chip away at campaign financing restrictions. \u201cNow here we are where any industry that\u2019s facing regulation or any donors who support an unpopular cause can really just open the spigots and try to throw primaries their way,\u201d adds Sledge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Certain industries have gotten smart about how to hide where the money is coming from. \u201cOrdinary voters don\u2019t generally like crypto, AI or gambling. They may tolerate it at a maximum, but they\u2019re not motivated by the idea of electing pro-crypto, pro-AI, pro-gambling people,\u201d notes Sledge. \u201cBut all of these industries have realized, \u2018OK, we can use super PACs that run ads that have nothing to do with our industry and get our friends elected to Congress, and they are going to remember that we spent a lot of money on their races.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-intercept-briefing\/id1195206601\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2js8lwDRiK1TB4rUgiYb24?si=e3ce772344ee4170\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLW0Gy9pTgVnvgbvfd63A9uVpks3-uwudj\">YouTube<\/a> or wherever you listen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Transcript<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jessica Washington:<\/strong> Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I\u2019m Jessica Washington, politics reporter at The Intercept.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Matt Sledge:<\/strong> And I\u2019m Matt Sledge, another politics reporter at The Intercept.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Today, we\u2019re going to dive right in because I know we\u2019re both exhausted. We were both up late covering the Kentucky and Pennsylvania primaries. Matt, we\u2019re speaking Wednesday morning, fresh off of that Kentucky primary election, where President Donald Trump endorsed <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/thomas-massie-loses-election-results-trump-aipac-kentucky\/\">Republican Rep. Thomas Massie\u2019s<\/a> opponent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Massie decisively lost his race. Is this proof that despite inflation, gas prices, the war in Iran, Trump is still a kingmaker, or I guess in Massie\u2019s case, a hangman?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Certainly when it comes to the Republican Party and intraparty politics, some people thought Massie might pull this out, and instead it was a pretty humiliating defeat for a long-term incumbent in the House.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThis is a party-on-party fight. Trump took out a guy who votes conservative nearly all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But you do have to step back a little bit and remember, this is a party-on-party fight. Trump took out a guy who votes conservative nearly all the time, and it\u2019s a safe Republican district. So he spent a lot of political capital taking out one Republican to replace with another Republican, essentially because he was mad about the Epstein files.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>The Epstein files is an interesting part of all of this because Thomas Massie fought so hard to get the Epstein files released. We talked about it on the podcast with one of the attorneys for some of <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/02\/13\/epstein-survivors-attorney-justice\/\">Epstein\u2019s survivors<\/a>, and it did seem like an issue that was breaking out politically.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats have been speaking about it. I actually heard at the Center for American Progress\u2019s event on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries actually spoke about the Epstein files and talked about it as a top issue for Democrats. So we know this is something that they are trying to make an election issue, but it doesn\u2019t seem like it worked for Massie. Why do you think that is?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s because it cut against the president so much and, just in the larger picture, enraged the president and turned him decisively against Massie. They had their problems before. I think it was hard for Thomas Massie to argue in his district that getting the Epstein files released was a great coup but also that it didn\u2019t harm the president, because it clearly did harm the president politically. Ultimately, the voters in his district decided that helping the president was more important than anything else.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>We also know that pro-Israel groups poured money into this race as well to try and defeat Thomas Massie. Is there anything that you can say about that?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Yeah, it was a lot of money. It was over <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/thomas-massie-loses-election-results-trump-aipac-kentucky\/\">$15 million <\/a>from two explicitly pro-Israel groups, super PAC affiliated with AIPAC and then a Republican pro-Israel group. Then also there was a kind of special purpose-created super PAC that was funded in large part by pro-Israel donors. So this was the most expensive House race in history. A huge percentage of that spending came from donors who were motivated by the issue of Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Massie has always opposed foreign aid in general, but I will say he has seemed to take special delight in tweaking supporters of Israel. Obviously that is a minority position within the Republican Party, so these groups came for him, and they were successfully able to help the president oust him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to talk a little bit more about how super PACs are hiding where their money is going in this election. But before we do that, I wanted to touch a little bit more on Democratic primaries from last night. So Pennsylvania had some big primaries. Are there any top lines from that race you want to share?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> I wasn\u2019t following Pennsylvania as much, but of course, everybody was watching that race in Philadelphia, where <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/pennsylvania-democratic-primary-results-chris-rabb-sharif-street\/\">Chris Rabb<\/a> was able to pull out a victory. That\u2019s a huge win for the Democratic Socialist wing of the party. He was up against a more establishment Democrat, and it shows that there is this really energized cohort within the Democratic Party that\u2019s really excited to elect progressives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>As I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, I was up covering that race. One really interesting thing, aside from the Philadelphia primary, was in Pennsylvania 7, the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, ended up backing \u2014 really heavily backing \u2014 Bob Brooks, one of the more progressive candidates in that race. We also saw Bernie Sanders backing him and the Working Families Party. So we saw this coalition effort between more mainstream center-left and progressives which is obviously different than what we saw in Philadelphia, but it\u2019s interesting to see how those two coalitions could work together in Congress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Matt, I want to talk a little bit more about how super PACs are operating in this race. You have a new piece out this week that gets into all of that. So it\u2019s about <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/18\/super-pac-election-spending-midterms-aipac-ai-crypto\/\">groups that are funding the 2026 midterm races<\/a>. You looked at a dizzying array of players who are throwing money into this election cycle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before we get into some of those players and the issues they\u2019re pushing, can you set the stage for us? How would you describe the current campaign finance landscape?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> It\u2019s just kinda anything goes, and we\u2019ve seen this gradual and then not so gradual evolution from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/citizens-united-explained\">Citizens United<\/a> decision in 2010, which opened the doors for allegedly independent spending on elections. The courts have just chipped away at whatever protections there are. Then the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has refused to get in the way of some pretty questionable behavior.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now here we are where any industry that\u2019s facing regulation or any donors who support an unpopular cause can really just open the spigots and try to throw primaries their way. A lot of time, they\u2019re doing it in ways that cover their tracks a little bit, and they\u2019re running ads that have nothing to do with their chosen issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>I want to get into the history of this, how we even got there. Citizens United is, I would argue, a boogeyman, not just for the left, but anyone who cares about democracy at all. Can you remind us how that SCOTUS decision really changed the landscape for how campaigns are funded and how we\u2019re seeing that evolve in this election cycle?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> It is a boogeyman on the left and elsewhere, but I would say a boogeyman for good reason. A truly significant Supreme Court decision that basically said, individual candidates running for office, we can still limit, how much they\u2019re raising and through that, how much they\u2019re spending on elections, but these allegedly independent spenders, groups like super PACs, can spend as much money as they want on a race because they have no connection to the candidates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is no danger of corruption, and that\u2019s really what we\u2019re interested in policing here. We don\u2019t want to police free speech. It essentially equated political spending with free speech, which a lot of people would take issue with.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the things that has been really interesting, I say interesting with some chagrin, as this system has evolved, is that we are now in this place, and I wrote about this in my recent article, where groups can kind of game campaign finance deadlines and create super PACs to funnel money to other super PACs so that reporting deadlines are missed and use these \u201cpop-up super PACs\u201d to ensure that ordinary voters never find out who is funding ads before a campaign happens.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of these newer industries that are getting in on the campaign spending game, like crypto and artificial intelligence, are also setting up entire networks of super PACs, sometimes a mama or a papa super PAC, and then a Democratic-affiliated super PAC and a Republican-affiliated super PAC so that both donors can channel their money to one party affiliate and to make it a little harder for voters to track where all the money is coming from.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>I really recommend that people go check out your piece. I think it\u2019s an amazing glossary on what\u2019s happening in our elections and the aftermath of Citizens United 16 years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn\u2019t just about AI or crypto, as you\u2019ve mentioned. There\u2019s also AIPAC. The Intercept has reported extensively on <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/10\/24\/aipac-spending-congress-elections-israel\/\">the American Israel Public Affairs Committee<\/a>, which has been spending directly on campaigns for a little while now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2024, our colleague Akela Lacy wrote, \u201cAIPAC embraced a new strategy. It would use its vast funds to oust progressive members of Congress who criticized human rights abuses by Israel and the country\u2019s receipt of billions of U.S. dollars in military funding.\u201d Matt, how is AIPAC operating this election cycle?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given that there\u2019s growing opposition on both the left and the right to Israel\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/israel-palestine\/\">genocide in Gaza<\/a> and influence in U.S. politics, is the group changing its tactics?<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAIPAC\u2019s brand is in the dumps. Israel\u2019s brand is in the dumps with Democrats as well. \u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> AIPAC\u2019s brand is in the dumps. Israel\u2019s brand is <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/03\/27\/dnc-aipac-funding-democratic-party\/\">in the dumps with Democrats<\/a> as well. You see even very pro-Israel Democratic politicians saying, \u201cI\u2019m not taking AIPAC money.\u201d What the group has done is really make use of these pop-up super PACs. So it\u2019s no longer the United Democracy Project, which is AIPAC\u2019s primary super PAC affiliate spending money in these races. It\u2019s groups with very bland, friendly-sounding names, and AIPAC\u2019s super PAC affiliate sends money to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes there\u2019s even a second layer of pop-up super PACness where those bland-sounding groups send money to other bland-sounding groups. God help you if you\u2019re an ordinary voter trying to track all this money. All you see are negative ads attacking candidates on issues that have nothing to do with AIPAC or Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> You just teased it a bit, but I know you poked around some FEC, \u2014 Federal Election Commission \u2014 reports, for a recent Chicago race and found some interesting information about how AIPAC donors were operating in the race. First, can you tell us what happened in Chicago, and what did you find in the reports?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> In Chicago, there was a newly created group called Elect Chicago Women, which sounds great. Who doesn\u2019t want to elect Chicago women? They received money from the United Democracy Project, which is AIPAC\u2019s super PAC affiliate. Then they turned around and handed a million dollars to another newly created group called the Chicago Progressive Partnership. It\u2019s a little surprising they didn\u2019t add \u201cand apple pie\u201d at the end of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt tweaked things so that under the FEC\u2019s campaign finance rules, the donors for that money did not have to be disclosed until after the race. \u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So basically what that did is it tweaked things so that under the FEC\u2019s campaign finance rules, the donors for that money did not have to be disclosed until after the race. In, for instance, the 9th Congressional District primary, there was this really hotly contested race between a progressive and an even more progressive candidate, both of whom were not favored by AIPAC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AIPAC attempted to, through these super PACs, play the spoiler and boost an entirely different super left progressive candidate to hurt <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/11\/01\/briefing-podcast-kat-abughazaleh-indictment-protest\/\">Kat Abughazaleh<\/a>, the influencer. You could argue it worked because she didn\u2019t lose by that much, and they may have successfully employed this tactic. They didn\u2019t ultimately get their chosen candidate over the line, but they did help a candidate they really disliked lose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>We saw this in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night as well. There\u2019s this group, Lead Left, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/12\/us\/politics\/gop-mystery-pac-midterms.html\">New York Times<\/a> had reported, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/punchbowl.news\/article\/house\/texas-democratic-primary-super-pac\/\">Punchbowl<\/a>, on some interesting ties that they had to Republican groups while also trying to sandbag the progressive candidates in the race by arguing that they weren\u2019t really progressive or that <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/19\/pennsylvania-democratic-primary-results-chris-rabb-sharif-street\/\">Ryan Croswell<\/a>, who no one would really argue is a progressive, is, just hiding and is really a Republican.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we\u2019ve seen this in other races, but I wanted to ask, what other races you\u2019ve seen this happen in and what might be of interest to people here?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Yeah, there\u2019s something that\u2019s really interesting happening in Michigan right now where there\u2019s another one of these newly created groups spending a lot of money to boost <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/18\/super-pac-election-spending-midterms-aipac-ai-crypto\/\">Haley Stevens<\/a>, who\u2019s AIPAC\u2019s preferred candidate in the race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They are using a consulting firm that AIPAC\u2019s super PAC has used in the past to buy television ads. But AIPAC came out and said, it\u2019s not us. We\u2019re not spending this money. As far as I can tell, nobody has gotten to the bottom of this, of where this money is coming from. I think there are several different ways where AIPAC could say it\u2019s not us and for it to be technically true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But perhaps there really is some other mystery group behind all of this spending. But it\u2019s really telling. This is a super high profile Senate race, a lot of journalists on it, a lot of eyes on it. Whoever is behind this money has so far been able to successfully conceal its origin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think it\u2019s really hard to argue that it is good for voters to not know where this huge amount of money in the race is coming from.<\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-embed flex-col items-center print:hidden\" id=\"third-party--article-mid\" data-module=\"InlineNewsletter\" data-module-source=\"web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\">\n<div class=\"-mx-5 sm:-mx-10 p-5 sm:px-10 xl:-ml-5 lg:mr-0 xl:px-5 bg-accentLight hidden\" data-name=\"subscribed\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-light uppercase text-[30px] leading-8 text-white tracking-[0.01em] mb-0\">\n      We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. 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Obviously there\u2019s been a lot of crypto, gambling, and AI money flooding the system right now. Where are you seeing that money going this season?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> A lot of it so far is being spent in these primaries, and a lot of it in the Democratic primaries is being spent to elect flexible centrist candidates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The thing with all of these industries is ordinary voters don\u2019t generally like crypto, AI, or gambling. They may tolerate it at a maximum, but they\u2019re not motivated by the idea of electing pro-crypto, pro-AI, pro-gambling people. More often the contrary within the Democratic Party. But all of these industries have realized, \u201cOK, we can use super PACs that run ads that have nothing to do with our industry and get our friends elected to Congress, and they are going to remember that we spent a lot of money on their races.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The likelihood of backlash from voters who have a million other things to keep track of is pretty small. Politicians are just going to decide, \u201cLet\u2019s keep our head down and not piss off crypto, AI, and gambling,\u201d even though those are pretty unpopular industries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> I have to say, when I was at the Center for American Progress event on Tuesday listening to Gavin Newsom, Hakeem Jeffries, the whole Democratic establishment try to figure out how to plot a lane in the AI fight, I kept thinking Matt would find this hilarious.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lot of saying a lot without saying anything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Yes, they would like to protect our children without actually doing anything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Yeah. It did, It was giving a little bit of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On that note, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/13\/technology\/andreessen-horowitz-politics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iFA.Orqp.fXjktnHA4TZ7&amp;smid=url-share\">The New York Times<\/a> reported that the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is the biggest donor this midterm cycle by a long stretch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The firm\u2019s co-founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have dumped more than $115 million into the cycle so far. For context, Democratic mega-donor George Soros has put in about $102 million, Elon Musk $85 million, and Wall Street financier Jeff Yass $81 million. Is this kind of spending standard for midterm elections?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What are the priorities being pushed here, in particular by these tech billionaires who are pouring a ton of money into these elections?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Andreessen Horowitz is a really fascinating case study in all of this. They have major investments in crypto and AI. They created this massive crypto super PAC network in the last election cycle. They saw that it was a success, and they are just repeating the pattern for artificial intelligence this cycle, and they\u2019ve gotten some of their friends in the AI industry to spend a bunch of money as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As you pointed out, it\u2019s a lot of money even in comparison to other billionaires. I think the explanation for that is that they are in highly regulated industries, or at least industries that should be highly regulated, and we\u2019re at a moment where the rules are being set, and they have recognized an opportunity to have their friends set the rules. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThey have recognized an opportunity to have their friends set the rules.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Following the money a little bit further down the road, former MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair has been gaining a lot of attention on social media for posting videos where she alleges \u2014 in detail \u2014 how the White House and powerful figures on the right coordinate messaging with paid influencers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s a clip of her in a recent interview on <a href=\"https:\/\/zeteo.com\/p\/this-ex-maga-influencer-silenced-ashley-st-clair\">Zeteo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>[Clip]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ashley St. Clair:<\/strong> There\u2019s multiple chats that they operate in, and these chats also have\u2014 Some are just sequestered to large MAGA influencers in which they send these paid campaigns. Others have members of the administration. Others have the Trump children. And they coordinate this messaging and react to things in real time: Here\u2019s how we respond or don\u2019t respond to any given issue at any given time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also have the paid campaigns in which messaging is pushed out, and it is very much coordinated through both paid messaging and just wanting to be in the club and not be ostracized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>[End of clip]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>Democratic California gubernatorial candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcra.com\/article\/fppc-compliant-tom-steyers-governor-campaign-influencers-10k\/71323935\">Tom Steyer<\/a> is being accused of not properly disclosing that his campaign paid influencers $10,000 each to promote him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is known about how influencers and messaging are factoring in elections today? What do you make of all this, Matt?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Yeah, I think we definitely have to take anything Ashley St. Clair says with a huge grain of salt, but\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW: <\/strong>Good point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS: <\/strong>At the same time, I think she\u2019s also probably getting at something. We all saw after the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/01\/white-house-correspondents-dinner-conspiracy-theories\/\">assassination attempt<\/a> how all these influencers immediately argued that we needed to build Trump\u2019s big, beautiful ballroom, and then a lot of people were questioning how they were able to all land on the same message so quickly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s clear when you watch any influencers online that half of them are being paid off, so it\u2019s the most natural thing in the world in one way for politicians and campaigns to get in on it. What is really missing here, what\u2019s really missing in this conversation is the question of regulation and disclosure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If we had a functioning FEC, they might step in and say, \u201cWhoa, you need to disclose when you\u2019re paying off influencers because that should be something the public knows about.\u201d Instead, we don\u2019t have a functioning FEC or a functioning Congress, so nobody is stepping in to make sure that disclosures are happening.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cDisclosure should be a bare minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Disclosure should be a bare minimum. Maybe this should be banned outright as well. But we, at the very least, should have clarity on when this is happening, and not just within the context of campaigns but also in the context of politics more broadly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Those are all really good points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The lack of any kind of regulation about this is troubling. We\u2019ve obviously been talking about money and where it\u2019s going and how it\u2019s going to influencers, into campaigns, into shady super PACs, but what issues do voters actually care about this election cycle? You and I have covered campaign finance. We\u2019ve covered ICE. But what issues are actually breaking through to voters?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Yeah, I think it\u2019s going to be the economy first and foremost, and then <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/04\/10\/iran-ceasefire-israel\/\">the war on Iran<\/a> as an extension of the economy, because it dovetails with these concerns about affordability so strongly. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the centrist Dem messaging around affordability is super cringe. But it\u2019s also true that it\u2019s a very important issue for voters. I think it has been rightly identified as a major issue that is just going to dominate everything over the next few months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t know how much ICE and the crackdowns will really play into the elections. My guess is that\u2019ll be more of a primary issue. Democrats who voted for the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/01\/14\/laken-riley-act-immigration-deportation-visas\/\">Laken Riley Act<\/a>, for instance, will have problems in primaries over that. But when you look at the <a href=\"https:\/\/poll.qu.edu\/poll-release?releaseid=3959\">polls in the general election<\/a>, immigration is still one of Trump\u2019s best issues. His numbers have definitely eroded there, but it\u2019s better than everything else by about 10 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I don\u2019t know if that\u2019ll be as much of an issue that candidates are highlighting in the general elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> On immigration, I do keep thinking that if the elections had been held earlier when everything that was happening in <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/16\/trump-abolish-ice-renee-good-jonathan-ross\/\">Minnesota<\/a> that was enraging people. I think that was an issue about immigration, but it was also really an issue about democracy, about people\u2019s right to protest, about the rights that they assumed they held as American citizens to protest against their government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want to pivot a little bit to talk about an issue that we\u2019ve been discussing on the show quite frequently, which is the fallout from the SCOTUS decision. So the Supreme Court ruled in favor of essentially gutting the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/08\/supreme-court-voting-rights-act\/\">Voting Rights Act<\/a>, which unleashed a new wave of redistricting wars that have been sparked particularly in the South to eliminate minority-majority districts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, last week, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ap.org\/news-highlights\/elections\/2026\/supreme-court-rejects-virginias-bid-to-restore-congressional-map-favoring-democrats\/\">Virginia State Supreme Court <\/a>rejected a voter-approved gerrymandering effort that would have boosted Democrats\u2019 chances of gaining four seats in the House. How are you seeing the redistricting wars take shape? Are there any places you\u2019re keeping a particularly close eye on?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Yeah, we\u2019ve seen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/05\/04\/florida-desantis-map-sign-redistricting-00905256\">Florida<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/louisiana-senate-passes-new-u-s-house-map-that-would-eliminate-majority-black-district\">Louisiana<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/20\/us\/politics\/south-carolina-redistricting-map-clyburn.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share\">South Carolina<\/a> quickly pass these new maps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, I think in a week or two, we might have hit a wall on the redistricting wars just for practical reasons, because primaries are coming so fast and early voting has opened in so many places. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mississippifreepress.org\/mississippi-governor-vows-thompsons-reign-of-terror-is-over-but-cancels-redistricting-plans\/?utm_content=buffer24b29&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=bufferapp.com&amp;utm_campaign=bufferbsky\">Mississippi<\/a>, for instance, the governor there has said he\u2019s not going to push redistricting this year, I think essentially just because of the timing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we may finally be settling in the place we\u2019re going to be for the elections, and it looks like a net loss of a few seats for the Democrats, which could be really significant if the outcome of the House elections is that close. On major votes in the House right now, it\u2019s only a few votes either way could shift them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> Speaking at the Center for American Progress event, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had mentioned that they expect to lose about three or four seats as a result of these redistricting efforts in the South, but they have obviously expressed some confidence in being able to overcome those odds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are there other midterms races or themes this cycle that you wanted to talk about?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> I think that Michigan Senate race is going to be a huge one. It just gets at so many issues, both of style and substance, of where Democratic voters want to go. That, to me, is really high on the list. This California governor\u2019s race is also fascinating in its own kind of train wreck way. So we\u2019ll see how things go there. Really makes you think how important electoral rules are because we could see some crazy outcome that ordinary voters don\u2019t particularly want.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> California is the mess that keeps on messing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> OK. Jess, I gotta turn the tables on you. Any other races that you\u2019re watching, no matter how obscure they are?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> I am a DC native, and I also live in DC, so I am following the DC mayoral race, which I know is probably not on most people\u2019s radar who do not live in DC, but it\u2019s fascinating. It\u2019s become this debate really around youth crime and these efforts to restart mass incarceration, I would argue, in DC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So that\u2019s become a really interesting electoral issue between the two more progressive candidates, Janeese Lewis George, who has really fought against these teen curfews, and Kenyan McDuffie, who has been really pushing for these curfews even though he\u2019s tried to paint himself as more of a progressive. So I think that race, although it\u2019s a mayoral race and might not have much impact outside of DC, has been fascinating to watch for me personally.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And with that little tidbit from me, I am going to leave it because I know we are both exhausted. Matt, thank you so much for joining us on the Intercept Briefing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ll add a link to Matt\u2019s story in the show notes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MS:<\/strong> Thanks for having me on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>JW:<\/strong> That does it for this episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our Managing Editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy-editor. William Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Slip Stream provided our theme music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This show and our reporting at The Intercept doesn\u2019t exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Keep our investigations free and fearless at <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/Donate_Podcast?source=interceptedshoutout&amp;recurring_period=one-time\">theintercept.com\/join<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And if you haven\u2019t already, please subscribe to The Intercept Briefing wherever you listen to podcasts. Do leave us a rating or a review, it helps other listeners to find us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let us know what you think of this episode, or If you want to send us a general message, email us at <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/22\/aipac-ai-crypto-and-gambling-are-hiding-their-big-election-spends\/mailto:podcasts@theintercept.com\">podcasts@theintercept.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until next time, I\u2019m Jessica Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/05\/22\/aipac-ai-crypto-and-gambling-are-hiding-their-big-election-spends\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Rep. Thomas Massie was decisively ousted on Tuesday night in his Kentucky primary, a win for President Donald Trump, who had launched an all-out attack on the congressman for his role in pushing for the release of the Epstein files. But in Pennsylvania, the left had a lot to celebrate. Chris Rabb won by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-usa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}