Republican establishment megadonors are bankrolling an effort to bolster support for an establishment-backed opponent to defeat former President Donald Trump’s backed congressional candidate, Black pastor Mark Burns, in South Carolina’s upcoming runoff elections.
The group, called “Conservatives for American Excellence,” is funded by Republican billionaires Ken Griffin and Paul Singer. Griffin is one of the Republican Party’s most pro-establishment donors and has continued to withhold funding for Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, even though he has been the presumptive Republican presidential candidate since March and has beaten all of his opponents in the early stages of the campaign. Meanwhile, Singer is one of the Republican billionaires who, along with Griffin, donated millions of dollars to support former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. Haley lost to Trump in every state except the far-left enclaves of Vermont and the capital, Washington, D.C., despite people like Singer and Griffin spending millions of dollars to support her. Griffin has praised Trump since Trump’s landslide victory over Haley, but has not loosened his purse strings to support the former president against Democrat Joe Biden, Said He plans to wait until Trump picks his running mate, and it’s unclear whether he or someone like him will be of any help to Trump.
These big donors, still angry that Trump won the Republican primary handily and then secured the nomination again despite their best efforts to stop him, are funding groups like Conservatives for American Excellence to run attack ads against Trump-backed candidates in South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District. Trump endorsed Barnes, a black pastor, a few months ago and speaks highly of conservative leaders. But in their desperation to stop Trump at all costs, these big donors are instead pouring millions of dollars into groups like these.
Griffin, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) report, recordwho donated at least $3 million to Conservatives for American Excellence, to which Singer has donated at least $1.5 million. Their groups are currently running attack ads falsely accusing Burns of “stolen valor.” CNN’s attack story Burns’ 2016 tweets focused on a previous conflation he made on an old website between the Army Reserve and the South Carolina National Guard. Burns did in fact serve in the South Carolina National Guard, so the confusion is not “defamatory.” But that didn’t stop Griffin and Singer’s group from putting together a TV ad currently airing in South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, which makes the absurd claim that “shocking revelations” have “made Mark Burns lie about being in the military and are now being accused of ‘defamation.'”
During a recent debate with establishment candidate Sheri Biggs, Burns refuted this nonsensical claim by holding up his honorable discharge certificate from the South Carolina National Guard, proving the ad to be a lie.
clock:Follow Presenting his honorable discharge from the South Carolina Army National Guard.
Completely destroy Vote & @Mike Bloomberg ‘s false claims of “stolen valor.” #SC03 pic.twitter.com/mBZJzWofNr
— National File (@NationalFile) June 19, 2024
Burns also released an exclusive statement to Breitbart News clarifying his military history.
“I served in the South Carolina Army National Guard for six years and was honorably discharged,” Burns said. “My basic training and AIT were at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the Infantry, also known as the Sand Hills. My MOS was 11B (Mechanized) Infantry. Anyone repeating CNN’s false and unfounded attack story that I did not serve honorably is simply lying. That’s how the liberal media operates. They take words out of context to create fake news and sell it to destroy their enemies.”
The latest attack ad against Burns comes after Breitbart News reported that a group funded in part by left-wing billionaire and anti-Second Amendment activist, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, was also behind an attack ad against Burns.
Burns will face off in next week’s runoff election against Biggs, a nurse who is clearly favored by Trump’s donor base. Burns came in first and Biggs second in a crowded primary, setting up a runoff election in South Carolina. For reference, you can see a video of Trump endorsing Burns and an image of his official endorsement on Truth Social on Burns’ campaign website. Website.
Perhaps more interesting than either candidate are the machinations and spending of their donor base as they seek to gain influence and support in Washington and in so doing undermine or sabotage Trump.
Beyond this election, Federal Election Commission records show that this very same group, Conservatives for American Excellence, has actually given money to conservative candidates in other congressional races across the country. Very little has actually gone to support them in general elections against Democrats, which seems emblematic, at least for now, of the donor class’ struggle to control the sliver of the Republican Party that lost the presidential election.
In fact, NBC News wrote a story about this group and others like it back in March, highlighting the efforts of these megadonors to undermine actual conservatives in order to shore up the Republican establishment.
“A group of the GOP’s most prominent megadonors is pouring millions of dollars into primary elections in heavily Republican districts, part of an effort to influence the makeup of the House Republican conference after a difficult and divisive year,” NBC News reported. report To read:
With political attention focused on the presidential race, two super PACs funded by small donors quietly spent more than $6 million on five Republican candidates vying for House seats in the Super Tuesday primaries, according to Federal Election Commission records. The super PACs, American Good Conservatives and American Lead Action, targeted candidates backed by or aligned with the political wing of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which has been a thorn in GOP leadership’s side since its inception in 2015.
Conservatives for American Excellence is not the first South Carolina group to throw money at Burns and support Biggs, as they have tried to undermine Trump-backed candidates in the Republican primary. Tried in Texas According to NBC News, a similar lawsuit was filed against Trump supporter Brandon Gill earlier this year, but Gill was ultimately sued. success It remains to be seen what will happen between Burns and Biggs on Tuesday in South Carolina, but overall, the broader battle between the ultra-wealthy extremists in the donor class and the more moderate, rational Republicans who have rallied around Trump is only just beginning.
