What is this SuperPAC you speak of?
by digby
I know it’s hard to believe, but it looks as though Donald Trump is a hypocritical liar. Shocking for sure:
Donald J. Trump has made his disdain for “super PACs” a central part of his stump speech. He criticizes candidates who get support from these outside groups, and his campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to one super PAC that used his campaign slogan, and whose strategist had ties to his campaign manager.
But Mr. Trump’s campaign has been less vocal about the Great America PAC, which was formed months ago under a different name and which says it spent more than $1 million in ads to support the candidate, although media trackers say they have seen no sign of that spending.
When Mr. Trump staged his own event with veterans instead of attending a Fox News debate in Iowa in January, a consultant named Eric Beach was in attendance. Mr. Beach, a veteran Republican operative from California who at the time was a supporter of Senator Rand Paul, is now overseeing fund-raising for Great America PAC.
The Trump campaign sent letters to other super PACs last year urging them to shut down after questions emerged about the ties of its strategist to Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and for using Mr. Trump’s campaign slogan to call itself, Make America Great Again PAC.
But the Great American PAC, which Mr. Beach is working for, received no such letter, according to the group’s lawyer, Dan Backer. A top ally of Mr. Paul, Jesse Benton, recently joined the super PAC.
Mr. Beach, in an interview, said that the group is augmenting what the candidate is doing, not just through ads but also with a delegate operation to help bolster Mr. Trump’s chances of getting the nomination. It also will focus on raising smaller donations, Mr. Beach said.
“The art of the super PAC really is to drive a message and to drive a narrative and capture a movement — it’s not to try to control what the candidate’s doing, and we fit that bill,” said Mr. Beach, who added that the goal is to capitalize on momentum.
The super PAC is a hybrid, not only promoting the candidate, but also raising small-dollar donations that it sends directly to the campaign.
And here we thought he was only spending his own money …
.