A Super PAC called Future 45 started airing an ad this week saying Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders would hurt small businesses and kill jobs by raising the minimum wage and increasing taxes. Watch it below:
Future 45 is run by Brian O. Walsh, a longtime Republican operative who has in the past served as political director for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Most recently, he was president of the American Action Network, a dark money group that was the second-largest outside spender in 2010.
Over the last year, Future 45 has been funded primarily by hedge fund managers. Two billionaire Rubio-backers — Paul Singer, who runs Elliott Management, and Ken Griffin, who runs Citadel — have each contributed $250,000.
During his career, Sanders has frequently called attention to the wealth amassed by hedge funds, noting that in 2013, “The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than $24 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 425,000 public school teachers. This level of inequality is neither moral or sustainable.”
As part of his plan to make public colleges tuition-free, Sanders proposes to impose a .5 percent speculation fee on hedge funds, something that would take direct aim at Singer’s and Griffin’s primary source of income.
Another large donor, coming in at $200,000, is Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who repeatedly lost races for U.S. Senate from Connecticut.
Future 45 had previously targeted Hillary Clinton with ads taking aim at her policies in Libya. This is its first ad against Bernie Sanders.
Top photo: Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer at a New York Times DealBook event in December 2014
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
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