Democratic PAC Accused Of Donor Fraud & Could Paramount Leave California? | 9.18.26

John Bickley (0:00)

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John Bickley (0:51)

A new congressional report levels damning accusations against major democratic fundraising platform, ActBlue. We talked to the congressman leading the investigation.

Bryan Steil (1:01)

ActBlue is not taking fraud seriously. We know foreign funds are coming in. And I remain very concerned that they intentionally misled Congress.

John Bickley (1:09)

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. Georgia Howe is off this morning. It's Friday, September 18th. This is Morning Wire.

Hollywood appears set to suffer another massive blow as Paramount Studios signals it's moving out of California. What would this mean for the industry and where would the studio land? And accusations of paying for votes hits a Democratic PAC pushing James Talarico in Texas.

Sky McAdams (1:41)

If I was a Republican, I would be pissed. I would be like, that's shady as f***.

John Bickley (1:45)

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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John Bickley (2:56)

A new report from House Republicans alleges that Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue accepted fraudulent and illegal foreign donations. Democrats also allegedly attempted to conceal relevant information from Republican investigators. Joining us now is one of those House Republicans leading the charge on this report, Congressman Bryan Steil from Wisconsin. Congressman, thank you so much for coming on.

Bryan Steil (3:19)

Thanks for having me on.

John Bickley (3:21)

So what more can you tell us about the findings of this report?

Bryan Steil (3:24)

Well, this report is the culmination really of three years of work looking into ActBlue. In a determination, does ActBlue have the fraud prevention standards that are needed to prevent foreign funds from coming in to our elections? And what we show, it's pretty clear that ActBlue is not taking fraud seriously. We know foreign funds are coming in.

And I remain very concerned that they intentionally misled Congress, as was reported by the New York Times. And so the American people should be concerned that foreign funds are entering our political system and this report lays out the facts for everyone to be able to read.

John Bickley (4:00)

So where did you see some of the, you know, the biggest and most alarming red flags?

Bryan Steil (4:04)

Well, in particular, we asked ActBlue very directly, if a donation is being made from outside the United States into a US political campaign, what are the protocols in place to prevent a foreign actor from making that donation? And ActBlue made it clear that they were reviewing passports to confirm an individual was who they say were a US citizen. Well, what we have now learned is that what ActBlue was really doing was just requiring individuals to type in a seven-digit number. They weren't actually validating that that was a US passport number. And so this is really concerning and it shows a pattern and practice of ActBlue not taking fraud seriously and not working to prevent foreign funds from coming into US elections.