10/8 Dem-donors Disinformation Campaign about Ukraine.
Ukraine deserves bi-partisan support. A group of Dem donors are undermining this support by purposely misleading voters and publishing misinformation. According to the latest opinion polls, over 2/3 of Americans support Ukraine and its fight for freedom against the Russian invaders as well as a majority in both Houses of Congress in both parties.
Despite the bi-partisan support, a Dem-funded false-flag operation has targeted the Ukrainian community and deserves censure.
(This post is a bit detailed and has many links, but it is needed to document the false-flag operation. Please spend an extra minute reading it this morning.)
Earlier this year, a new organization, Republicans for Ukraine (gopforukraine.com) published its website and Congressional Scorecard. Republicans for Ukraine looks like a grass-roots organization and show testimonials of numerous citizens voicing support for Ukraine. Ukrainian advocacy groups used the Report Card, which exorcised Republicans for their lack of support on Ukraine.
Republicans for Ukraine is listed as 501c3 registered to Defending Democracy Together (see footer). As a 501c3, Defending Democracy does not disclose its donors, but its 990 tax form is public information, which shows its officers.
Sarah Longwell is the director of the charity and her for-profit company earned $2,819,574 from the non-profit.
The Republicans for Ukraine site had no staff listed and no “About us” page. A review of pages on the site (here and here) lists John Conway as Director of Strategy and Kase Cronin as spokesperson. A review of the Linkedin pages for Conway and Cronin list them both as employees of Longwell Partners. They are also listed on staff page at Longwell Partners.
In addition to running the charity and her for-profit business, Ms Longwell is also listed the President of Republican Accountability PAC. As a 504c, the PAC must disclose its donors.
The Republican Accountability PAC states clearly “We are Republicans”. For better or for worse, it seems that the PACs donors are Democrats. According to its FEC reports, the PAC raised $17,667,638 in 23/24. $6mln from Reid Hoffman, founder of Linkedin. $3mln from Seth Klarman, billionaire founder of Baupost Hedgefund and $2mln from John Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt fortune and brother the Dem Gov of Il. As well as $2mln from the above-mentioned Defending Democracy Together. All three are vocal Democrat mega-donors.
Reid Hoffman has a history of funding false-flag operations in previous US elections, most notably in Alabama Senate Race in 2018. According to a NY Times article after the election, Mr Hoffman apologized for the operation and stated he did not support such tactics in American politics. In fact, “Mr Hoffman said he had no idea that political operatives whose worked he had financed used fakery in Facebook and Twitter in the special Senate election a year ago in Alabama. But he had an obligation to track how his money is being spent, he said, and he promised to exercise more care in the future.”
This backstory was unknown to the Ukraine Activist community. Many accepted the research from Republicans for Ukraine at face value. Republican Congressmen who voted in favor of every key bill concerning Ukraine received low grades of B or C. For example, Rep Max Miller of OH who got a C+, despite voting yes on 6 key bills for Ukraine and never voting against. as opposed to A. Or Rep LaLota who voted 5 times in favor of Ukraine and even signed the discharge petition against party leadership, but was demoted to a C+ for an innocuous statement. It seems that the closer the race, the more likely GOP4Ukr was to downgrade the Congressman.
Americans who support Ukraine deserve fair, non-partisan and unbiased information about Ukraine presented without disinformation. Unfortunately, Republicans for Ukraine and its Dem-donors are the opposite: a biased group aiming to deceive Americans about Congressional votes for partisan gain. It is a shame that these Dem-donors are using disinformation tricks on the Ukraine community.
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