Biden Aide Who Threatened to ‘Destroy’ Female Reporter is Protege of Notorious Sex Pests Halperin, Lauer
T.J. Ducklo will keep his job after Biden vowed to fire staff who treat others with 'disrespect'
T.J. Ducklo, the White House deputy press secretary who threatened to "destroy" a female journalist seeking comment for a story about his ethically problematic relationship with an Axios reporter, will keep his job despite President Joe Biden's warning that staff members who treat others with "disrespect" would be fired "on the spot."
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Ducklo will receive a one-week suspension without pay after his "heated conversation" with Politico reporter Tara Palmeri, which occurred on Jan. 20, was made public for the first time in a Vanity Fair article published Friday.
Ducklo reportedly made derogatory and misogynistic comments toward Palmeri after she reached out to his girlfriend, Axios reporter Alexi McCammond, for comment on a story about the couple's relationship. Ducklo did not, for whatever reason, lash out at Palmeri's male colleague who had reached out to him for comment.
According to Vanity Fair, the conversation went off the rails when Ducklo accused Palmeri of being "jealous" of his relationship with McCammond, and threatened to ruin her reputation if she published the story. "I will destroy you," he said. Politico published the story on Tuesday, a day after People magazine ran a sympathetic profile of the D.C. power couple.
Ducklo's misogynistic outburst is even more problematic considering his history of employment. His role as Biden's deputy press secretary is not the first time Ducklo has flacked for someone accused of sexual assault.
For example, Ducklo was the senior communications director for NBC News between 2018 and 2019, when the network was struggling to contain the fallout from the numerous sexual assault allegations leveled against disgraced daytime host Matt Lauer. Journalist Ronan Farrow has accused senior NBC News executives of turning a blind eye to Lauer's predatory behavior and of actively thwarting his efforts to report on disgraced Democratic donor Harvey Weinstein's history of misconduct.
Ducklo may or may not have interacted with Weinstein when he did communications for the Motion Picture Association of America from 2011 to 2014. He definitely hung out with the group's chairman, former senator Chris Dodd (D., Conn.), who is best known for making a "waitress sandwich" with the late Ted Kennedy, among other forms of disreputable behavior toward women.
Dodd, who served on Biden's vice presidential selection committee in 2020, was exceedingly reluctant to weigh in on the (in some cases criminal) allegations against Weinstein, whom he called a "friend" who was "very helpful to me as a candidate for Congress and as a senator over the years." Anita Dunn, one of Ducklo's colleagues in the Biden White House, went so far as to provide Weinstein with "damage control advice" as the disgraced producer sought to avoid being convicted on rape charges.
Ducklo also worked as communications director for Bloomberg Politics, an organization whose founder, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, has faced numerous lawsuits from women alleging discrimination and sexual harassment. He went on to do public relations work for The Circus, the Showtime political reality series starring Mark Halperin, the former MSNBC (and Bloomberg) journalist who was ousted from public life amid allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior.
If Ducklo is looking for some contracting work to keep him busy during his week off, the Lincoln Project could use all the help it can get.
Left-Wing ‘Dark Money’ Networks Hid Millions in the 2020 Elections
Sixteen Thirty Fund, Tides Advocacy used by wealthy donors to anonymously back Biden and Democrats
Despite repeated calls for increased campaign finance transparency, President Joe Biden and other Democrats received tens of millions of dollars in assistance from massive "dark money" networks during the 2020 election cycle.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, which houses dozens of liberal groups and projects, pumped $60 million into committees backing Biden and other Democrats. Tides Advocacy, a similar group part of a larger dark money network, spent $1.6 million.
Dark money groups pouring large sums into elections is nothing new. But the 2020 election marks the first time nonprofit incubators like the Sixteen Thirty Fund have been used by deep-pocketed Democratic donors to anonymously fund election activity.
Wealthy individuals use the Sixteen Thirty Fund to conceal millions in nonprofit spending. The fund acts as a "fiscal sponsor" by providing its tax and legal status to a host of liberal groups, including the left-wing judicial group Demand Justice. Sponsored groups are not required to file individual tax forms that disclose information such as overall financials, board members, and contractors.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund paid $5.7 million—its largest payment of the cycle—to Victory 2020, a fundraising committee associated with Democratic operative David Brock’s American Bridge super PAC. American Bridge received $4.4 million directly from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which also funneled $5 million to Future Forward, and $4.5 million to Priorities USA Action.
Biden benefited from the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s payments despite calling for "increase[d] transparency of election spending" and an "end [to] dark money groups." Dozens of left-wing political committees used the cash to pay for advertisements and voter canvassing that supported Biden and other Democratic candidates.
"The Sixteen Thirty Fund is confronting the biggest social challenges in our country through fiscal sponsorship, advocacy, and electoral action," the group's executive director Amy Kurtz previously told the Washington Free Beacon. "We support investing in the health and strength of our democracy and have lobbied in favor of reform to the current campaign finance system (through H.R. 1), but we are equally committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives in this election."
The Sixteen Thirty Fund is managed by Arabella Advisors, a D.C.-based consulting firm whose massive dark money network also includes the New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund. The four funds combined raked in $715 million for liberal causes in 2019.
The Arabella-managed network is used by the Democracy Alliance, a secretive group of Democratic donors cofounded by George Soros. The Democracy Alliance had set a goal of pumping $275 million into the 2020 elections, according to documents obtained by the Free Beacon.
Tides Advocacy, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of the massive Tides Nexus that raised over $800 million in 2019, reports hauling in $52 million on its most recent tax forms. Much of the network's cash went to "get out the vote" campaigns in the 2020 elections. Tides Advocacy's largest donations for the 2020 elections include $400,000 to MoveOn.org Political Action, $300,000 to Win Justice, and $270,000 to People's Action Power.
Like the Sixteen Thirty Fund, The Tides Nexus acts as a fiscal sponsor to a plethora of liberal groups. They also do not identify who provides funding to nonprofits within their network.
This was the first cycle Tides Advocacy has been used to push cash into elections. The group did not provide a comment.
Democrats have long derided dark money in politics but in recent years have outpaced Republicans in its usage. Biden benefited from $145 million in anonymous funds, while Donald Trump benefited from $28.4 million in dark funds.
No comments:
Post a Comment