After losing the 2020 presidential election, Trump told his supporters to give him their money for the "Official Election Defense Fund." They gave him $250 million. Of course, there was no such thing as the "Official Election Defense Fund." It was a grift. What makes it funny is that it's a grift that keeps grifting. Trump's dupes will never learn. The next time Trump asks his victims to max out their credit cards on his behalf, his cult followers will fight to be the first to max out their credit cards at the expense of feeding their own families or buying prescription medicine.
Last night, Stephen Colbert devoted a few minutes to Trump's scam and his willing suckers.
The former president demanded his followers donate to something called the "Official Election Defense Fund," which raised a quarter of a billion dollars. And, surprise-surprise, the [J6 select] committee discovered that the whole thing was a grift. As the select committee has demonstrated, the Trump campaign knew these claims of voter fraud were false, yet they continued to barrage small-dollar donors with emails, encouraging them to donate to something called the "Official Election Defense Fund."
The select committee discovered that no such fund existed. So he duped $250 million from his most passionate supporters and then watched as they all go to prison while he sat in Mar-a-Lago double-fisting coconut shrimp. And these aren't wealthy people. You can always tell when they're wearing nothing but giveaway merch from the losing team.
So if there was no election defense fund — where did the money go? Well, according to the committee, there was a $1 million donation to the personal foundation of the former president's chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Yes, the Meadows Foundation is a charity that raises money to fund research into how much money it can raise. They also skimmed off over $200,000 for the former president's hotels. And that was just Giuliani's bar tab.
Of course, they spread cash around to their friends and fam. For instance, Don Jr.'s fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was paid $60,000 for her two-minute January 6th speech. but it was worth it. I'll never forget her immortal words: yaaahhg-haahheet-ahaaaghhh!
Of course, the big question looming over all these hearings is, "Someone's going to jail for this, right?
right, guys? somebody's going to jail?"
We got a hint last night from committee chairman Bennie Thompson telling reporters that the panel will not make any criminal referral of the former president or anyone else to the Justice Department.
Counterpoint: why not?
There's a reason Law & Order doesn't start like this: "In the criminal justice system, there is one branch who investigates the crimes, and that's it. Everyone goes free. Dun! Dun!"
Bonus! at the 10:28 mark Colbert mentioned a BB post about Junior's lousy steak commercial!