What A Day: Elon Musk's Crackpot Jackpot | Crooked Media
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What A Day: Elon Musk's Crackpot Jackpot

Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom, Pa., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom, Pa., Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

QUID BRO QUO

Elon Muskā€™s $1 million daily giveaway to swing state voters is raising serious legal questions:Ā The move ā€œseems to collide with federal election law,ā€ Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight committee, exclusively toldĀ What A Day.

  • Billionaire conspiracy theorist Elon Musk spent the weekend handing out oversized, golf tournament-style $1 million checks to dazzled voters while barnstorming for former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. It all started on Saturday, when Musk called a sweepstakes winner in a MAGA hat up to the stage and made him one million dollars richer, with the words: ā€œSo anyway, youā€™re welcome.ā€ Muskā€™s America PAC plans to continue handing out $1 million every day until Election Day to one registered voter in a swing state, selected from those who sign the groupā€™s petition in support of the First and Second Amendments (which concern free speech and access to guns, respectively). ā€œI think this is kind of fun, and you know, it seems like a good use of money basically,ā€ said Musk, the worldā€™s richest man with a net worthĀ above $240 billion.
  • Some election lawyers beg to differ.Ā Federal lawĀ prohibits paying or offering to pay ā€œfor registration to vote or for voting.ā€ That includes so-called ā€œlottery chancesā€ aimed at inducing or rewarding a certain behavior, such as voter registration, according to UCLA election law expert Rick Hasen, who published a blog post over the weekend calling the sweepstakesĀ ā€œclearly illegal vote buying.ā€Ā Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who happens to be the former Attorney General of Pennsylvania,Ā called for law enforcementĀ to ā€œtake a look.ā€
  • Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a longtime constitutional scholar and a legal heavyweight in Congress, slammed the giveaway in a phone call withĀ What A DayĀ this afternoon. ā€œIt definitely seems to collide with federal election law, which makes it a crime to pay people to register to vote,ā€ Raskin said. ā€œYou can’t pay people to register, and the problem with that is perfectly demonstrated by this episode ā€” because he is offering a financial inducement to people to register to vote from the perspective of a particular candidate in campaigning.ā€ Muskā€™s America PAC didnā€™t reply to a request for comment.

Federal law treats lottery chances as a form of payment because each lottery chanceĀ has financial value to it, Raskin explained. ā€œThis is like passing out lottery tickets.ā€

  • Not all campaign legal experts say Muskā€™s giveaway is over the line, however. Brad Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told theĀ New York TimesĀ that he sees the move as ā€œsomething of a gray area.ā€ Smith continued: ā€œHeā€™s not paying them to register to vote. Heā€™s paying them to sign a petition ā€” and he wants only people who are registered to vote to sign the petition. So I think he comes out OK here.ā€
  • Hasen flatly disagrees with Smith. ā€œI think he’s totally wrong,ā€ Hasen toldĀ What A Day, while noting that election law scholars have been debating the topic all day in a listserv. ā€œWhat we would have is turning our elections into more like a bazaar, where people are not thinking like, ā€˜what’s best for me and the country.ā€™ Itā€™s like, ā€˜whatā€™s good for my wallet.ā€™ā€
  • Should normal people go ahead and sign up for this in hopes of winning the big bucks? Hasenā€™s answer: Hell no! ā€œI certainly wouldn’t sign up for it, because I know what the law is,ā€ he said. ā€œPeople who are listening to you now and hearing me speak: That would be a bad thing to do.ā€ Got it!

Raskin warned that Muskā€™s attempt to buy Trumpā€™s way into the White House is par for the course among Trumpā€™s allies. ā€œIt’s consistent with the completely monetized pay-to-play, quid pro politics of the MAGA party,ā€ he said.

"So anyway, you're welcome.ā€ ā€” Elon Musk, awarding a $1 million check to a swing state voter.

NEWS NEWS NEWS

Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump among early voters by nearly 30 percentage points,Ā according to a new poll. But among those who plan to wait until Election Day, Trump leads by 17 percentage points. Donā€™t be fooled by the headlines! This race is still very much a coin toss. Which yes, is terrible! Weā€™re sorry! We donā€™t like it either!
Nearly 1 in 5 Republicans say Trump should try to seize power if he loses the election,Ā a new survey found. Even more chilling, about 3 in 10 Republicans ā€œbelieve that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country,ā€ Axios writes. Look we know itā€™s October but we would prefer to watch horror in fictional form.
The Social Security Trust Fund could be drained completely within six years under a second Trump administration,Ā a new report predicts. A Harris administration, meanwhile, is projected to keep the Social Security Trustā€™s timeline on its current track. Touch choice!
Green Party candidate Jill Steinā€™s own family is urging her to drop out of the race for president, in fears that sheā€™ll help Trump win the election. ā€œWhen she told us she was going to run again back in October 2023, we asked her not to,ā€ one of her own sons told theĀ New York Times. ā€œShe does not have the support of the family.ā€ Embarrassing your family by helping Trump? Maybe this means she and RFK Jr. are twin flames after all.
Prominent conservativeĀ New York TimesĀ columnist Bret Stephens announced thatĀ heā€™s voting for Kamala HarrisĀ in November. ā€œIā€™d rather take my chances with a president whose competence I doubt and whose policies I dislike than one whose character I detest,ā€ he said. Add this alongside Dick Cheney in the ā€œuhhhhā€¦ didnā€™t see this coming but I guess weā€™ll take itā€ category.
The current global coral bleaching event is the largest ever recorded and continues growing,Ā the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced, and, you guessed it, man-made climate change is one of the big culprits

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