Ep 122 | What the Hell is 'Dark Money'? | Guest: Dave Levinthal
The Political Orphanage
Andrew Heaton
4.9 • 1000 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2019
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much do you have to pay to swing an ambassadorship? What is Citizens United and why do people loathe it? Heaton talks with Dave Levinthal, senior reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, about campaign finance and how money shapes politics.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and |
| 0:12.0 | Hello and I'm in Something's Off with Andrew Heaton. I'm your host Andrew Heaton and I'm in Washington, D.C. right now. |
| 0:17.0 | But don't tell my creditors that. In fact, if anybody asks, |
| 0:22.0 | tell them I've been at your house the last two or three weeks. |
| 0:25.0 | Also, if you could loan me a couple hundred dollars in a suitcase, that would be great. |
| 0:30.0 | Just be cool, man. Be cool. |
| 0:32.0 | We're going to talk today about one of the sexiest, hottest, or gasmiest topics around and |
| 0:39.3 | that is campaign finance. |
| 0:41.1 | You're welcome. |
| 0:42.8 | We spent a little over $5 billion on the 2018 midterms, which sounds like a mind-boggling |
| 0:48.3 | amount until you realize that's about half of what we spent on Halloween costumes, candy, and decorations. |
| 0:53.7 | But regardless of how you feel about candy corn, and I'm against it. |
| 0:57.0 | There's a persistent idea that in America, money buys elections and therefore rich people |
| 1:00.9 | do. |
| 1:01.8 | That wasn't the case with verified rich guy Mitt Romney or other verified rich |
| 1:05.1 | guy Steve Forbes or Newt Gingrich who is not himself super-rich but was backed by a billionaire |
| 1:10.1 | gambling degenerate in Vegas. |
| 1:12.3 | Nor did the equation work out for Hillary Clinton |
| 1:13.8 | who outspent Donald Trump in 2016. In fact Donald Trump significantly underspent |
| 1:18.7 | his Republican primary opponents in 2016 at every step of the campaign. I was working in cable television news then and |
| 1:25.2 | I could watch him do it in real time. Whenever he dipped in the polls he would say something |
| 1:29.7 | crazy or offensive or both. We should nuke Cuba or charge Rosie O'Donnell with war crimes or |
... |
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