Speaker 1: Let's talk about political fundraising.
We've been looking at polling, but we have not been looking at fundraising.
The second quarter just ended.
The second quarter is April, May and June.
And we have some very interesting new fundraising data.
I do not yet have Joe Biden's fundraising data for the second quarter.
When I have it, I will tell you what it is.
But Donald Trump's fundraising has exploded significantly in Q2, assuming, of course,
that the Trump campaign is being honest in their reporting.
Trump pulled in per politico more than $35 million in the second quarter.
That is nearly double what Trump raised in Q1 and suggests.
Politico writes that the indictments are helping with fundraising, and the article goes into
detail in Q1.
Trump raised just under $19 million in Q2.
Trump raised more than $35 million.
Important to note, the joint fundraising committee is split between Trump's official campaign
and his leadership PAC, Save America.
At least in theory, the Save America PAC is meant to raise money for people that Trump
endorses or supports.
The official did not break down how much of that 35 million went to Trump versus the PAC.
But the most recent fundraising solicitations direct 90% of each donation to Trump's campaign
and 10% to the Save America PAC.
The PAC, by the way, also lately is focusing spending on non-campaign activity, like paying
for Trump's legal bills.
So there are a few different things to talk about here.
First and foremost, the average donation was $34 in $0.20.
We have people.
Who can only afford to give about 30 bucks paying for a billionaire's legal fees.
A billionaire who has a private jet, they are sending money to a guy with a private
plane for his legal fees.
Because of all of the crimes he allegedly committed and all they can really do, it's
30 bucks because statistically, they can't meet an unexpected $400 expense that they
might be presented with.
That's insane.
That is insane.
And grift after grift.
You know, I hate to do this.
Sort of, like, caveat emptor.
A fool and their money are soon parted.
We can't have a nanny state protecting these people.
Like, I don't want to go in that direction.
But after the grift of 2016, where Trump raised money, money, money, despite saying, I don't
really need any money, I'm rich enough to run on my own with all of these promises that
he didn't meet.
And then he ran again in 2020 saying, I'm making the same promises all over again, even
though I didn't meet them in the first campaign.
This time I will.
And people donate and then Trump loses.
And then there's this Hey, now I need your money in order to overturn elections and do
forensic audits where we're going to look ballot by ballot for bamboo fibers or barbecue
sauce or whatever the case they were looking for and also for filing lawsuits.
And then half of that 70% of that went to paying Trump's campaign bills.
GRift after grift after grift.
And now he's doing it again.
And they're still donating money for legal fees.
At this point, I don't think there's anyone who can protect these people, and probably
we shouldn't even continue trying.
I want to hear from you on that question.
Should these folks who continue to donate money to the obvious grift, should we even
care at this point or at some point?
Is it a matter of personal responsibility like Republicans love to say and they need
to be parted with their money if they are going to fall for it again?
Let me know what you think.
We are going to keep an eye on the Biden fundraising numbers.
Also, as far as fundraising.
This is a very interesting report from Axios from yesterday called Democrats Amass Early
War Chest for Brutal 2024 Senate Map.
The 2024 Senate map is not a great map for Democrats.
Remember that with 100 senators in the Senate every two years, a third of them are up for
reelection.
The terms are six years long.
But these are sort of overlapping classes in the Senate.
The third of the Senate that happens to be up for reelection in 2024 is not particularly
good for Democrats.
What is very interesting is that a number of a number of prominent Democrats are doing
really well in terms of fundraising.
Senator Bob Casey in Pennsylvania has raised more than $4 million.
That's his best fundraising quarter ever.
Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin, first openly LGBT woman in the Senate, raised over
$3 million.
That is also a record high.
Adam Schiff broke the record for second quarter Senate fundraising.
Remember, he's a member of Congress, but he's running for Dianne Feinstein seat, which he
will be vacating.
These are stunning, stunning, stunning numbers.
But there are many Republicans who are doing well as well.
In Nevada, retired U.S. Army Captain Sam Brown is likely to launch a Senate campaign against
the Democrat there.
And that potentially is going to do well in terms of fundraising.
There are Republicans who have the potential with major Republican Senate campaign support
to also do well.
But the encouraging sign here is it does it right now.
If we want a proxy to enthusiasm for 2024, we would look at fundraising.
I don't have the Biden Q two numbers, but I do have some Senate Q2 numbers and they
look very good, particularly considering that it's July of the year before the election.
Hope is not lost and the Senate could end up being okay in 2024.
That's where we'll leave it.
We'll take a quick break after this.
I am going to talk about threads, the new Twitter competitor.
We're going to talk about so many different things.
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Even Trump's pollster MacLachlan would have to admit that these are very, very good numbers.
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