以支持共和党在即将到来的两次佐治亚州参议院决选中获胜。这一请求是特朗普选举后大规模筹款努力的一部分,其中大部分捐给了特朗普的新政治行动委员会“拯救美国”。
但是,根据广告投放数据和竞选披露记录显示,总统带入新政府行动委员会的资金似乎都没有真正帮助共和党参议院的决选活动。
特朗普的团队在本周发给支持者的一封筹款电子邮件中写道:“格鲁吉亚决选就在眼前,国家的命运悬而未决。”“事关重大,我需要知道你是我们团队的一员,准备为美国而战。”
他们在最近的另一封电子邮件中写道:“获得你们的支持至关重要,以确保我们获得必要的资源,让民主党一败涂地。”。
在细则中,这封信将资金分配细分如下:每笔捐款的25%捐给RNC,每笔捐款的75%首先捐给拯救美国,最多5000美元,其余的75%捐给特朗普竞选团队,个人捐助者最多2800美元,太平洋行动党捐助者最多5000美元。
到目前为止,RNC已经在支持佐治亚州共和党候选人的独立支出上花费了大约300万美元,并承诺在总体上花费2000多万美元。
斯潘塞·普拉特/盖蒂影像公司
唐纳德·特朗普总统在佐治亚州瓦尔多斯塔参加支持参议员大卫·濮培德和参议员凯利·雷夫勒的集...
“我们目前拥有佐治亚州有史以来最大的团队,包括500名受薪员工和数千名志愿者,”RNC发言人迈克·里德告诉美国广播公司新闻。"在过去的几周里,我们的团队已经敲开了数百万扇门。"
里德补充说,RNC的重点是地面游戏和投票,因为他们通常把广告购买和其他竞选活动留给竞选团队和外部团体。
事实上,自从选举日11月,两党的数百个外部团体已经或承诺支持格鲁吉亚候选人。仅电视和广播广告支出就很快接近5亿美元,这是由竞选活动和政治利益集团筹集的资金推动的。
但特朗普的新领导层PAC不在其中。根据媒体研究公司CMAG对广告购买记录的分析,泛太平洋委员会没有在竞选中购买任何电视或广播节目,也没有按照联邦选举委员会的规定报告任何支持共和党参议员大卫·濮培德或凯利·雷夫勒的独立支出。
该委员会的筹资和支出的全部范围尚未披露,因此尚不清楚这些资金是否用于支持特朗普最近对格鲁吉亚的政治访问,或者泛非议会是否对竞选活动做出了任何直接贡献。但即使有,政府帐目委员会最多可作出5000元的贡献,这似乎只是所得款项的一小部分。
拯救美国组织的官员没有回应美国广播公司新闻的置评请求。
唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump Jr .)的顾问成立的超级政治行动委员会(super PAC)没有向特朗普委员会筹集资金,但报告称在竞选上花费了100多万美元。
竞选透明度倡导组织第一期的研究主任迈克尔·贝克尔(Michael Beckel)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News),尽管在有争议的竞选中,候选人试图利用更高知名度政治家的名人吸引力是很常见的,但在任总统利用有争议的选举作为为自己的政治运作筹集资金的手段是非常罕见的。
贝克尔告诉美国广播公司新闻,“即将离任的总统如此积极地为领导委员会征集捐款是极其罕见的,更不用说利用引人注目的竞选作为诱饵,在没有将筹集到的大量资金投入竞选的情况下吸引捐赠者。”“迄今为止,特朗普总统的拯救美国行动委员会筹集了大量资金,特朗普总统在如何使用他为其领导的行动委员会筹集的资金方面几乎没有限制。”
一些积极筹集资金支持共和党候选人的共和党人表示,特朗普的领导PAC存在问题。
“我认为如果他们筹集资金是有问题的,这意味着你将帮助凯利·雷夫勒和大卫·濮培德获胜,因为这真的是现在最重要的事情,”玛莎·佐勒,前佐治亚州国会候选人,现在经营佐治亚州联合胜利党,一个在决胜选举中花费数百万支持共和党的超级政治行动委员会。
内森·莱恩/路透社
两名示威者举着标语,敦促特朗普的支持者在佐治亚州瓦尔多斯塔的决选中投票给美国共和党...
佐勒说:“总统会做他想做的事,但我的目标是赢得这些比赛。”。“如果他在此基础上筹集资金,那么他应该把钱花在帮助投票上。”
“2022年不重要,2024年也不重要,”佐勒补充道,他指的是特朗普在2024年寻求连任的可能性。“如果我们在1月5日没有获胜,共和党在未来的两年和四年将会有一个非常不同的局面。我认为现在是总统考虑整个国家的时候了,而不仅仅是投票给他的人。”
“我们生态系统中的每个人都可以以他们认为合适的最佳方式运作,”一位不愿透露姓名的共和党战略家对美国广播公司新闻说。这位战略家补充说,“共和党方面的每个人都必须共同努力,有效地调动资源,确保可以在格鲁吉亚花费的任何美元都在1月5日之前得到部署。”
广告投放数据和联邦选举委员会披露报告显示,虽然拯救美国尚未在决胜选举上投入任何资金,但由小唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的顾问推出的名为拯救美国参议院行动委员会(Save US Senate PAC)的新超级行动委员会(super PAC)报告称,已在竞选上支出逾120万美元,其中逾50万美元用于电视广告,其余用于数字广告和其他努力。
但这只是一些更大、更坚定的团体支出的一小部分。广告购买记录显示,卡尔·罗夫(Karl Rove)领导的超级泛太平洋美国十字路口(super PAC American Crossroads)已在佐治亚州播出并预订了近4800万美元的广告,而超级泛太平洋参议院领导基金(super PAC Senate Leadership Fund)及其当地附属机构桃树泛太平洋(Peachtree PAC)迄今已在广告上花费了8700万美元。
总体而言,共和党外部团体在广告上的支出远远超过民主党团体,共和党计划在1月份的第一周在电视和广播广告上支出1.62亿美元,民主党团体仅支出4600万美元。
参议院领导基金发言人杰克·潘多尔告诉美国广播公司新闻,“这绝对是一个全体人员的努力”。“我们在支出的金额上发挥着领导作用,但我们欢迎我们能得到的一切帮助。这是一次极其重要的选举,它将决定我们国家的未来。”
Trump is fundraising off Georgia runoffs, but his PAC is spending none of it on the candidates
Over the past few weeks, PresidentDonald Trumphas been imploring his supporters to donate to the "Georgia Election Fund" to support Republicans in the two upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs. The plea has been part of Trump's massive post-election fundraising effort, much of which has been going to Trump's new political action committee, Save America.
But none of the funds the president has brought into his new PAC appear to have gone to actually help the Republican Senate runoff campaigns, ad placement data and campaign disclosure records show.
"The Georgia Runoff Election is right around the corner and the fate of the Nation hangs in the balance," Trump's team wrote in a fundraising email sent to supporters this week. "So much is at stake and I need to know that you are on our team and ready to FIGHT for America."
"It is CRITICALLY important we have your support to secure the resources we need to deliver the Democrats a CRUSHING defeat," they wrote in another recent email.
In the fine print, the letter breaks down the distribution of funds as follows: 25% of each contribution goes to the RNC, and 75% of each contribution first goes to Save America, up to $5,000, with the rest of the 75% going to the Trump campaign, up to $2,800 for an individual donor and $5,000 for a PAC donor.
The RNC so far has spent roughly $3 million in independent expenditures supporting the Georgia GOP candidates, and has committed to spend more than $20 million in the runoffs overall.
"We currently have the largest team ever in Georgia, which includes 500 paid staffers and thousands of volunteers," RNC spokesperson Mike Reed told ABC News. "Our teams have knocked on millions of doors over the past few weeks."
Reed added that the RNC's focus is on the ground game and get out the vote efforts as they typically leave the ad buys and other electioneering activities to the campaigns and outside groups.
Indeed, sinceElection Dayin November, hundreds of outside groups on both sides of the aisle have spent, or committed to spend, in support of the Georgia candidates. The television and radio ad spending alone is quickly approaching the $500 million mark, powered by the funds raised by the campaigns and political interest groups.
But Trump's new leadership PAC is not one of them. The PAC has not placed any television or radio buys in the race, according to media research company CMAG's analysis of ad-buy records, and it has not reported making any independent expenditures in support of Republican Sens. David Perdue or Kelly Loeffler, as required by the Federal Election Commission rules.
The full extent of the committee's fundraising and spending has yet to be disclosed, so it's unclear if any of the funds have been used to support Trump's recent political travels to Georgia or if the PAC has made any direct contribution to the campaigns. But even if it has, the maximum contribution a PAC can make is $5,000 -- which would appear to be a small fraction of the money coming in.
Officials with Save America did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.
A super PAC set up by Donald Trump Jr.'s advisers, which doesn't raise money with the Trump committees, did report spending more than $1 million on the races.
Michael Beckel, research director at the campaign transparency advocacy group Issue One, told ABC News that while it's common for candidates in a contentious race to try to leverage the celebrity appeal of higher-profile politicians, it is highly unusual for a sitting president to be using a contentious election as a hook to raise money for their own political operation.
"It is extremely uncommon for an outgoing president to be so aggressively soliciting contributions for a leadership PAC, let alone using high-profile races as a hook to entice donors to give without investing much of the money raised into said races," Beckel told ABC News. "President Trump's Save America PAC has, to date, raised an extraordinary amount of money, and President Trump faces few restrictions on how to spend the money he raises for his leadership PAC."
Some Republicans who are actively raising money to support the GOP candidates say Trump's leadership PAC is problematic.
"I think it's problematic if they're raising money and the implication is you are going to help Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue win, because really that is the most important thing right now," Martha Zoller, a former Georgia congressional candidate who now runs Georgia United Victory, a super PAC spending millions in support of the Republicans in the runoffs.
"The president is going to do what the president is going to do, but my goal is to win these races," Zoller said. "And if he's raising money based on that, then he should be spending the money to help get the vote out."
"2022 doesn't matter, 2024 doesn't matter," Zoller added, referring to the possibility of Trump seeking reelection in 2024. "If we don't win on Jan. 5, Republicans are going to have a very different landscape for the next two and four years. I think it's time for the president to think about the country as a whole and not just the folks that voted for him."
"Everyone in our ecosystem could be operating in the best way they see fit,” said one GOP strategist, who spoke to ABC News on the condition of anonymity. The strategist added, "it’s imperative that everyone on the Republican side work together to effectively pull resources and make sure that any dollar that can be spent in Georgia is deployed for Jan. 5."
While Save America has not yet spent any money on the runoffs, the new super PAC launched by Donald Trump Jr.'s advisers, called Save the US Senate PAC, has reported spending more than $1.2 million on the contests, with more than half a million dollars of that going to television ads and the rest to digital ads and other efforts, ad placement data and FEC disclosure reports show.
But that's a small fraction of what some of the bigger and more committed groups are spending. The Karl Rove-led super PAC American Crossroads has aired and booked nearly $48 million on ads in Georgia, while the super PAC Senate Leadership Fund and its local affiliate, Peachtree PAC, have together spent $87 million on ads so far, ad buy records show.
Overall, GOP outside groups have been vastly outspending Democratic groups on ads, with Republicans scheduled to spend $162 million on television and radio ads through the first week of January, with Democratic groups only spending $46 million.
"This is an absolutely all hands on deck effort," Senate Leadership Fund spokesperson Jack Pandol told ABC News. "We're taking a leadership role with the amount of money that we're spending, but we welcome all the help we can get. This is an extremely important election that's going to decide a lot about our country's future."