Reps. Greene and Gaetz Are Rich in Hate, But Their PAC Is Low on Cash
A PAC started by two of the House’s most controversial members — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — is running low on funds and only has $13,000 in cash, Mother Jones reported.
Despite a strong start to the year that raised $360,000 in January and February alone, Put America First PAC’s most recent FEC filings reveal that not much is left in the coffers. The PAC spent $159,000 between July 1st and September 30th, but only raised $57,000 in the same period. During that time, the two representatives embarked on a fundraising tour that lost money and had a number of events canceled.
The two aren’t exactly raising tons of money for their own campaigns either, the magazine reported. While Greene has raised upwards of $8.8 million since joining Congress, she is now spending increasing amounts of money to bring in more cash, paying consultants and fundraisers and vendors to help court donors. In the most recent two quarters, Green reported $1.5 million raised, less than half of what she raised in the first quarter of this year.
Greene has made a name for herself in Congress with outlandish and sometimes dangerous claims, which have cost her all of her committee assignments. She has compared House rules requiring members to wear masks to the Holocaust and said “any rational Jewish person” would agree. She spouted a wild conspiracy theory blaming “Jewish space lasers” for the California wildfires. And she taunted Rep. Marie Newman, whose office is across the hall from Greene’s, by putting out a sign insisting there are “TWO genders” after Newman displayed a trans flag outside her office door. Newman’s daughter is transgender.
Gatez, on the other hand, is mired in potential legal trouble, and that appears to have affected his campaign’s finances, as he outspent what he raised between July 1st and September 30th by $100,000 and raised significantly less than he did at the beginning of the year. But that was before news broke that Gatez is under investigation for alleged sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl, a crime that Gaetz’s former pal Joel Greenberg has pleaded guilty to while cooperating with federal investigators. Greenberg faces 33 federal charges in total and in August he pleaded guilty to six. Gaetz has denied having sexual contact with any minor. Despite his lackluster fundraising, the magazine noted, Gaetz is still spending extravagantly on luxurious accommodations.
Let’s hope their fledgling finances are a sign Americans aren’t putting too much stock into these two extremists.