MeidasTouch
Founded | March 2020 |
---|---|
Founders | Ben Meiselas Brett Meiselas Jordan Meiselas[1] |
Type | Political action committee |
Purpose | Support Democrats as well as Joe Biden, the President of the United States and progressive causes in America |
Website | meidastouch |
MeidasTouch is a liberal American political action committee formed in March 2020 with the purpose to stop the reelection of Donald Trump in the 2020 United States presidential election.[2][3][4][5] The SuperPAC has aligned with the Democratic Party in the 2020 United States presidential election, the 2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia, and the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia.[6][7][8]
History
The committee was founded in March 2020 by three brothers from Long Island, while in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9][10]
One of the founders, Ben Meiselas, was an attorney who served former NFL player Colin Kaepernick.[11][12][13]
Brett was an Emmy-winning video editor for the Ellen DeGeneres Show.[14]
Jordan was a marketing supervisor living in Brooklyn, New York.[15]
The group name and slogan come from their mother and father, combining their father's last name, Meiselas, and their mother's maiden name, Golden,[10] while alluding to the mythological Greek king Midas known for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. Which the moral of the myth is one should never be greedy in life because the wish of being greedy does not give fruitful returns in the future.
Timeline
2020 U.S. Presidential Election
On April 22, 2020, the committee released their first video, titled "Are You Better Off?", which criticized Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States;[16] The committee shared the video in a Twitter reply to George Conway, which was then retweeted by him.[10]
On June 6, 2020, another video was released, called "Bye Ivanka"; it took parts out of her commencement speech and focused on her relation with China and criticized Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis.[17] Her speech was going to be given at Wichita State University Tech, but it got canceled due to student and teacher pressure.[18][19]
On June 17, 2020, another video was released, "Gop Cowards", which accused Republican senators of being cowards. Near the end of the video, followers are urged to vote 11 Republican legislators out.[20]
On June 23, the committee released a video called "Trump Kills US".[21] The video focuses on Trump's comment at his Tulsa rally which urged doctors to "slow the testing down".[22] MeidasTouch called it "Mass murder on a national scale".[23]
On July 8, a new video was released called "Creepy Trump". It compiled Kellyanne Conway's comments on Joe Biden and put it together with Trump statements.[24] The ad uses clips of Conway's comments and remarks Trump has presented about women, and was played on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.[25]
On July 14, another video was released called "#ByeDonJr". It takes Donald Trump Jr.'s comments on Fox News about Biden and applies them against Trump. The video also further criticizes the older Trump's handling of the pandemic.[26][27]
The group continued its activities after the November 3 elections. On November 27, it claimed credit for making #DiaperDon the top Twitter trending topic in the US, via a tweet that mocked (as summarized by The Independent) a "press briefing ... which saw [Donald Trump] furiously assail a reporter from behind a surprisingly small desk", and provoked Trump into calling for the immediate abolishing of Section 230 "for purposes of National Security".[28]
2020–2021 Georgia Senate Elections
The SuperPAC targeted Republican candidates in the 2020–21 United States Senate election in Georgia and the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia with several televised attack ads, billboards, direct mailings and door-to-door canvassing efforts.[6][7][8]
Most notably, MeidasTouch aired an advertisement called "The Grinches of Georgia." CNN said of the ads, "Humor is the chosen route for Democrat-backed Meidas Touch. Their television ads show Perdue and Loeffler with green faces and Grinch-like features. A nursery rhyme narration includes the verse, "Their stockings were stuffed from the stocks that were sold, when they heard Covid was coming, before we were told."[29] The Hill credits MeidasTouch as framing the Republican candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue as "Looting Loeffler" and "Chicken Perdue," respectively. "The ad takes aim at the senators—dubbed 'Looting Loeffler and Chicken Perdue'—and highlights the controversies surrounding their stock purchases," The Hill said.[30] The "Grinches" ad campaign also included matching billboards and mailers.[31]
Controversy
Rolling Stone magazine did an in depth look into MeidasTouch and their activities, called "The Trouble with Meidas Touch". Among other findings, Rolling Stone noted their campaign fundraising was "nonsensical and a more effective tool for fundraising than for helping Democrats win elections" and that "MeidasTouch's grandiose self-promotion doesn't match reality".[32]
In early February 2022, Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy accused MeidasTouch of supporting another organization called Patriot Takes, which retweeted viral videos showing Joe Rogan using the N-word 20 times on his podcast and which was very critical of Rogan’s conduct. These videos of Rogan had previously circulated for many years before Patriot Takes was ever formed.[33][34][35][36] During an interview on the MeidasTouch podcast and The Dave Portnoy Show, the Meiselas brothers explained to Portnoy that MeidasTouch provides limited administrative support to Patriot Takes but that Patriot Takes is an independent organization with its own editorial process. Later on in the interview, Portnoy- without evidence- accused Jordan Meiselas of once using a racial slur in a text message conversation in 2014 when Jordan was in college, which Jordan denied. Portnoy provided no proof for his claim and has not provided any proof to this day.[37]
References
- ^ "About Us". MeidasTouch. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ "Supercut Exposes The Ugly Truth Of Trump's Rhetoric On Protests". HuffPost Canada. June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ "PAC releases scathing video against Ivanka Trump using her dropped commencement speech". The Independent. June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ Langlois, Shawn. "Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell and other GOP officials slammed as 'cowards' in new viral clip". MarketWatch. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- ^ Katz, AJ (June 7, 2021). "Fox News Decides Not to Air Ad Submitted by Liberal PAC MeidasTouch". Ad Week.
- ^ a b Joyner, Chris (December 18, 2020). "Georgia's Senate runoffs: Special interest PACs flood the zone". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- ^ a b Williams, Jordan (December 5, 2020). "Liberal group running Grinch-themed ads targeting Loeffler, Perdue". The Hill.
- ^ a b Cullins, Ashley (November 27, 2020). "Brothers Behind MeidasTouch SuperPAC Talk "Audacious" Post-Trump Plans". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ Johnson, Ted (June 12, 2020). "The Race To Go Viral: Three Brothers' Anti-Donald Trump Videos Draw Millions Of Views". Deadline. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ a b c "The Story Behind MeidasTouch, Whose Ads Are Roasting Trump". www.adweek.com. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ Aswad, Jem (April 10, 2019). "Attorney Ben Meiselas on Repping Colin Kaepernick, Interning for Diddy and Hillary Clinton They have become the go to "axe men" for the Democratic Party". Variety. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ "Kap works out at new site without NFL's blessing". ESPN.com. November 16, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ "Colin Kaepernick workout moved to new location without NFL affiliation". ABC7 San Francisco. November 17, 2019. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ "Meet MeidasTouch, the Super PAC That's Gotten Hollywood's Attention (and Millions of Views) With Their Anti-Trump Videos". The Hollywood Reporter. October 6, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
- ^ "Meet MeidasTouch, the Super PAC That's Gotten Hollywood's Attention (and Millions of Views) With Their Anti-Trump Videos". The Hollywood Reporter. October 6, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
- ^ "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?". MeidasTouch. April 22, 2020. Archived from the original on June 16, 2020. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
- ^ Papenfuss, Mary (June 8, 2020). "Supercut Mixes Ivanka Trump's Clueless Speech With Attacks On Protesters". HuffPost. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ Rogers, Katie (June 7, 2020). "Ivanka Trump Blames 'Cancel Culture' for Pulled Speech. College Says It Took a Stand". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ Kristen Holmes; Jason Hoffman; Veronica Stracqualursi. "University cancels Ivanka Trump's commencement address over backlash to President Trump's response to George Floyd's death". CNN. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ Moran, Lee (June 17, 2020). "GOP Cowardice On Trump Takes Center Stage In Scathing New Supercut". HuffPost. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
- ^ Mazza, Ed (June 24, 2020). "'Mass Murder': Trump's Coronavirus Confession Is Already Being Used In Attack Ads". HuffPost. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
- ^ "'Slow the testing down, please': Trump tells Tulsa audience he recommended fewer coronavirus tests". MarketWatch. Associated Press. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
- ^ "New advert calls Trump's comments on testing 'mass murder'". The Independent. June 24, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
- ^ Mazza, Ed (July 9, 2020). "Kellyanne Conway's 'Creepy' Comments Get Turned Against Trump In Biting New Ad". HuffPost. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ^ Klar, Rebecca (July 14, 2020). "Democratic super PAC to launch 'Creepy Trump' TV ad". TheHill. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ^ "Brutal new attack ad turns Donald Trump Jr's comments against the president". The Independent. July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ^ Mazza, Ed (July 15, 2020). "'Bye Don Jr': New Attack Ad Turns Trump Son's Words Against The President". Huffington Post. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
- ^ Embury-Dennis, Tom (November 27, 2020). "Trump declares Twitter national security threat after #DiaperDon trends following meltdown". The Independent. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Kim Berryman and Kyung Lah (December 21, 2020). "Pop-up super PACs flood Georgia runoff: 'It's about the big message'". CNN.
- ^ Williams, Jordan (December 5, 2020). "Liberal group running Grinch-themed ads targeting Loeffler, Perdue". The Hill.
- ^ "Georgians get Scrooged by campaign ads". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. December 22, 2020.
- ^ Hettena, Seth (April 8, 2021). "The Trouble with Meidas Touch". Rolling Stone.
- ^ "https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1490422032663732225". Twitter. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
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- ^ "https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1490438459374329863". Twitter. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
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- ^ "Ebro Presses Joe Rogan Over Resurfaced Video With Racist Remark". Complex. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
- ^ "https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1487805512561266688". Twitter. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
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- ^ MeidasTouch chats with Dave Portnoy, retrieved March 21, 2022