Hello, I'm Michael Watson, joined by Sarah Lee and Parker Thayer, and this is the Influence Watch podcast.

Today we have a special edition, recorded from the SPN annual meeting, because it turns out that things are happening in the world of Arabella advisors.

The Gates Foundation, it is reported, is withdrawing its financial support for the large,

left-of-center dark money network.

We are now here to discuss the implications and what happened.

I guess I'll start with you, Parker, What the New York Times report? What is,

I guess, the situation as of 2 o'clock on August 27th? The situation is that Taylor Swift and Travis

Kelsey are engaged. And Arabella has decided this is the perfect time to drop a negative news dump they've

been holding on to for some time now, it seems.

Arabella advisors, all of our repeat listeners know, and if you're any new listeners,

I'll briefly summarize, is the largest political consulting firm in America.

They control a network with about a billion

dollars in annual revenue between seven nonprofits that fund all of the worst political activism

causes in the country. They are tied to Democratic politicians and power figures in almost

every way imaginable, but no longer

tied to Bill Gates. Bill Gates, who runs the Gates Foundation, has decided that Arabella is too

political for his firm, for his foundation to be associated with anymore, as Teddy Schleifer

in the New York Times, who deserves amazing praise for being one of the best reporters on this beat. He lays out that the Gates Foundation has sent the Arabella Network

about $450 million over the past several years. So over the period of the next five years,

this decision will probably cost Arabella something close to a billion dollars in revenues, at least on their nonprofit side.

It's a really momentous.

Is it the end of Arabella?

...