The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report.
Welcome. Welcome to the Pro America Report. This is Ryan Hite, filling in today for Mr. Ed Martin. I’m glad to be here. Glad to be Joining you on this wonderful start to our week and have we got some stuff to talk about today!
Hey, before we go any further, let me remind you go to proamericareport.com proamericareport.com. That’s where you’re gonna find Ed’s substack. The things he’s writing about, of course. Also go to phyllisschlafly.com. That’s where you’re gonna find the archives of this program. The Pro America Report. All the past podcasts and links and resources, and most importantly. The sign up for the WYNK e-mail you want to get subscribed to that so that you don’t miss it every weekday morning into your inbox. You also want to go to Pro America Report, get subscribed to Ed’s substack lots of activity rolling along over there and a lot of important things that you will want to know about both places. It’s a 2 for one. I’m not even going to charge you, but welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you for joining the program. We got a good one today, but let’s dive into it. Let’s get to that. The what you need to know for today, I think there’s an issue that.
Well, it’s coming back again. It’s not new, but I think that it’s something that the first time it was there just being a good conservative who’s politically involved and that, you know, knows what’s going on. I know a lot of other folks that that fit that description and yet this one, they heard the buzzwords, both, you know, CNN and Fox. I hesitate to say the left and the right because Fox isn’t really the right. Not anymore. If you know what I mean.
But even on good conservative places, Breitbart and Newsmax, there was a lot of use. Of the phrase Zuckerbucks when it came to the 2020 election, a lot of use and I think. That went largely well, not largely, but in in in good part that went under the radar for a lot of people. I don’t think folks really fully grasped what it was all about, even though they knew it was, you know, big liberal billionaires millionaires trying to interfere in the election and private money. What? What does that mean? What does it all mean?
Well, we’re back. It has come back now in the 2024 election cycle. We are starting to see this issue rear its ugly head. I think it’s time that we had a good. A quick historical look at what that whole thing meant, what the Zuckerberg’s issue was about and what it means now for us in 2024. Because if you and I are going to effectively communicate this issue, whether it’s to our friends and family, coworkers, people who trust us and say, hey, you, you, you’re in the know you know what’s going on or if it’s our opportunity to reach out to legislators. To our state reps and senators, particularly, this is a state level thing. Then we’re gonna need to be informed about that issue. We’re gonna need to be understanding of it and able to converse and answer some questions. So, so here’s what it is. Let’s let’s back this up and let let me kick us off here with the WYNK. What you need to know.
What you need to know is that dirty private money is shoving its way. Into public elections, that’s what’s happening. And and this is what the Zuckerberg’s deal was, it’s become a colloquial phrase, but essentially this is and. And we talked about this last week, the what is it? I think it’s is it. Is it. Colonel John Mills talks about the 4th branch of government. The nonprofits. Last week we talked quite a bit. Ed did and we talked to Deroy Murdock about this huge influence of Nonprofit organizations. Organizations that not only enjoy tax exempt status, but a lot of them that enjoy public funding, how they have become hyper partisan, hyper political to a point that is influencing and interfering with public office with public services, with government itself. Now here it is this is this is again. We’re talking about nonprofits that are giving money to the running of elections in the states. This is what the Zuckerbucks thing was about in 2020.
Specifically, there was an organization, a big organization. Let me see if I can pull up the name here. I’ve got it. I’ve got two different ones that that we’re talking about. So in 2020, what we saw was a group called the Center for Tech and Civic Life CTCL that was donating millions, 10s of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars. To local election offices, so CTCL in Wisconsin and other states in 2020 poured in about $350 million. Think about that for a second. $350 million into local election authorities that were managing the 2020 election. Most of those funds, most of that $350 million came from privately donated money by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, i.e., Zuckerbucks. Here we go. This is this is what this all means.
So it was allocated. For all kinds of things in these state and local election authorities, basically huge Democrat, huge Democrat money funders, huge Democrat donors, not just Democrat donors, but left wing donors very radical left wing donors were pumping hundreds of millions of dollars to local election authorities, primarily in Big Democrat controlled cities, through the auspices of so-called nonpartisan nonprofits.
Now. If that passes the smell test for you, I have some beachfront property right here in Missouri with the ocean to sell you. But I mean, really, you know, I think I all sarcasm aside, that that doesn’t pass the smell test. That doesn’t even sound remotely, possibly above board. To hear hundreds of millions of dollars coming from a a very obviously a partisan person who has expressed nothing but a left wing position and donated to Democrat causes and and one side specifically, and suddenly you’re pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into a non profit that is in a non partisan way, supposedly doling out this money to local election authorities to, isn’t, I mean local elections. Being able to afford the tech and the process behind it.
Isn’t this one of the things that our government should in fact be spending money on, the facilitation of technology and people? To actually have in the electoral process?
I mean, I could think of a bunch of stuff that I think we should cut completely from state budgets, from federal, from government itself, but facilitating elections is not one of them. This is actually one of the things how come we don’t have money for this, but we’ve got money for for all these other things that, that, that that’s almost a separate conversation, though we don’t have to go down. So anyway, this issue has reared its head again. There’s your historical lesson. But it’s reared its head again.
It was the Center for Tech and Civic Life in 2020. And now we are looking at an organization called and it’s another C, it’s called Cities Forward, Cities Forward and I’m gonna post a PDF here in on social media and in the show notes, you’ll want to get. This is the agreement. But Cities Forward, a new nonprofit started last May, May of 2023 is giving. 786,000 plus dollars to the City of Milwaukee, a grant. For nonpartisan purposes. So they say, to give them new voting machines, new ballot Tabulators, new text messaging services, even cell phones. So that folks out in the field working on the elections can more easily contact back again almost $1,000,000 just last week went to the City of Milwaukee for their election authority. There is absolutely no way you can convince me this is above board. I mean, there’s there’s no possible way.
This is Zucker, bucks. 2.0, welcome to this same thing all over again. Private money from partisan hacks. Dumping funds into public elections and you’re telling me it’s all above board and it’s all for the running of these things in a better and more nonpartisan way.
Baloney. Absolute baloney.
And this isn’t even the extent of it. Cities Forward is also giving the Milwaukee Public Library, like, I think, 1/4 of a million dollar Grant for non partisan public education campaign is, I think is the terminology they’re trying to increase civic connection among residents. That just screams of ballot harvesting or something else to me.
Again, this private money being dumped into state election authorities. This is one of those things that should make the hair on the back of our necks stand up.
This seems completely antithetical to the transparency and accountability that we ought to demand of public office that we ought to demand. Of our governing authorities, and yet here we are, Cities Forward, basically the CTCL this old Zuckerbucks Reborn for 2024 is coming in to dump untold Millions, 10s of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars again. And they’re starting in Milwaukee into the public election authorities. This is something we have got to understand. We have got to see.
‘Cause this is, you know, this is being fought but not very hard. I think Louisiana is one state, who’s banned, quote unquote Zuckerbucks via a constitutional amendment. But this is weird.
Weirdly enough, it was last November. The Wisconsin legislature actually passed a resolution to amend their state constitution to ban the private funding of election administration, and here we are. Here we are. The voters are supposed to decide to approve that on April the 2nd. And just before April the 2nd, on the eve of that public vote, here comes grant money from public elections. Let’s shove it in there before they stop us, and we can’t do it anymore.
Absolute garbage. We have got to stop this kind of private funding of public elections from happening all over again. Say no. That’s what Zuckerbergs was in 2020. That’s what it looks like Again in 2022 and we have got to stop it here and across all 50 states. It cannot happen.
No private funding of public elections. That is not how America works. That’s what you need to know.
So we’re gonna dive back off. We got a couple of great guests. I’ll be back here to wrap up the end of the show, but that is something you need to know about something important that we are facing right here. Across the states, again starting in Milwaukee, but it’s coming to a state near you. Rest assured, the private funding of public elections is just one more way to tinker with the system to interfere with this system, and essentially to rig or steal elections. Make no mistake about it, that is the goal. Don’t let them do it. Alright. We’ll be back. Go to proamericareport.com, PhyllisSchlafly.com and get all the goodies. We will be back after the break here on the Pro America Report.
