Report: AIPAC Spent a Record Amount on the 2024 Election

During the 2024 elections, the Israel lobby poured at least $45.2 million into winning candidates for Congress, the most by any organization in history, according to a new report from Sludge.

The report states that 349 senators and members of the House of Representatives, or 65 percent of Congress, received money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or its affiliated super PACs in both parties. For example, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson received at least $654,000, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, received at least $933,000.

AIPAC in particular targeted two Democratic members of the House: Representatives Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York, each known for their progressive reputations and for being among the first in Congress to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. AIPAC spent $20 million to back their primary election opponents Wesley Bell and George Latimer, respectively, successfully unseating Bush and Bowman.

It’s a massive increase from AIPAC’s spending in 2022, which only amounted to $13 million in contributions to congressional campaigns. This time, the lobby upped its spending due to opposition to Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, which has created a humanitarian catastrophe and led to a massive civilian death toll.

Candidates that it backed oppose a ceasefire to end the war, which has continued unabated for more than a year and led to war crimes charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif. But Israel still receives unconditional backing from the United States from President Biden as well as President-elect Donald Trump, and that will only become stronger when Trump is sworn in.

Rudy Giuliani is trying to get out of attending in-person trial proceedings, after being held in contempt of court, by pretending that his life is in danger.

Lawyers for the former New York City mayor argued in a filing Wednesday that their client cannot attend a session in person at the end of the week. Giuliani had appeared virtually in court on Monday.

“He is 80 years old and suffers from a number of medical conditions,” the lawyers explained, noting that he has issues with his knee, lungs, and heart.

The filing also cited “a number of credible death threats” against the disgraced politician.

“As one of the more outspoken critics of the current Iranian regime, at a time of heightened terrorism concerns following the recent events in New Orleans and Las Vegas and the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran and its various proxies, it is reasonable to take extra precautions regarding Mayor Giuliani’s safety, and limit travel whenever possible,” the filing said.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the profound concern for Giuliani’s safety extends to two weeks from now, when his lawyers requested permission for their client’s trial to be delayed so he could attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration festivities.

RFK Jr. is being accused of voter fraud. 

Watchdog group Accountable.US alleges that the former presidential candidate and current Trump pick to lead Health and Human Services should be investigated for  “registering for and voting” from “a New York residence at which he does not legally reside.” This would be a federal felony if true.

A New York Supreme Court in Albany found that Kennedy was using an address in Katonah, New York, to vote from while he actually lived in California. Public records show that he voted from that same address this November, according to the watchdog group. Kennedy said he’d been renting a room from a friend at the address, while the friend’s wife testified that he’d only spent a single night there. 

“Not actually living in New York in the eyes of the law apparently did not stop RFK Jr. from casting his election ballot there illegally,” said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk. “If RFK Jr. is so dismissive of the law in his personal matters, how can he be trusted to properly apply the law when it comes to our public health? Senators should press Kennedy on whether he intends to play by his own rules and thumb his nose at the law as HHS Secretary, like President-elect Trump is wont to do.”

RFK Jr. joins Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, and Tulsi Gabbard on a list of embattled Cabinet nominees. His team has yet to comment on the allegation.

Within hours of announcing Meta’s policy changes to return the company to its “roots of free expression,” the company has already begun censoring criticism from its own employees, 404 Media reported.

Meta’s “Internal Community Relations team” deleted several posts made by employees criticizing the recent decision to add Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White—a close ally of Donald Trump—to Meta’s board of directors, the outlet revealed Tuesday.

While the response from employees was mixed overall, several were outspoken about their disappointment. While one joked that UFC fighter Connor McGregor would be next to join the company, another employee remarked that it was “kind of disheartening to see people in the comments celebrating a man who is on video assaulting his wife and another who was recently convicted of rape,” referring to White and McGregor, respectively.

“I can kind of excuse individuals for being unaware, but Meta surely did their due diligence on White and concluded that what he did is fine. I feel like I’m on another planet,” wrote a third employee.

Several posts criticizing White were supposedly deleted because they had violated the “Community Engagement Expectations,” or CEE, rules that govern the internal communications between employees.

“I’m posting a comment here with a reminder about the CEE, as multiple comments have been flagged by the community for review,” wrote one member of the Internal Community Relations team in a thread, which explained why posts had been deleted. “It’s important that we maintain a respectful work environment where people can do their best work. We need to keep in mind that the CEE applies to how we communicate with and about members of our community—including members of our Board. Insulting, criticizing, or antagonizing our colleagues or Board members is not aligned with the CEE.”

Tracy Clayton, a Meta spokesperson, told 404 Media that posts that were critical but did not violate the CEE had not been taken down. Clayton emphasized that the internal and external moderation policies were completely separate.

The censorship feels particularly hypocritical considering that Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that the company’s platforms would no longer use third-party fact-checking services, in favor of community notes. They would also dial back content filters, allow more discussion around topics such as gender and immigration, and raise the threshold for removing a post—all changes that directly benefit right-wing speech.

Meta’s policy chief said that the announcement was inspired by Trump’s return to the White House, and even Trump speculated that the decision had “probably” been in response to threats he made against Zuckerberg.

White’s installation at the top of a major social media company signals a big shift in corporations toward appeasing both Trump specifically and the larger manosphere in general.

Donald Trump’s acolytes in the House of Representatives are so jazzed about his forthcoming administration that they’re practically handing him the reins to resume manifest destiny.

In a since-deleted tweet posted on Wednesday, the official account for the House GOP challenged the patriotism of the president-elect’s foreign policy detractors, claiming that denying Trump’s “big dreams” for the country was “un-American.”

“Our country was built by warriors and explorers,” the official House GOP wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “We tamed the West, won two World Wars, and were the first to plant our flag on the moon.

“President Trump has the biggest dreams for America and it’s un-American to be afraid of big dreams,” they wrote.

The message was circulated alongside the New York Post’s front page, which featured a caricature of Trump standing in front of a map of the Western hemisphere with America’s geographical neighbors rebranded as part of America.

Trump has escalated a laughless joke in recent weeks that Canada and Greenland should be absorbed into the United States, making them states under the American banner. But the bully behavior ends where foreign countries begin to take the threat seriously: Trump has also advanced the idea that the U.S. should take the Panama Canal from Panama. That alone has prompted the leader of the Panama Canal Authority to warn that Trump’s rhetoric “will lead to chaos.”

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, Ricaurte Vásquez Morales sternly rebutted Trump’s claim that China was getting preferential rates to use the vital trade route.

“Rules are rules and there are no exceptions,” Vásquez Morales said. “We cannot discriminate for the Chinese, or the Americans, or anyone else. This will violate the neutrality treaty, international law and it will lead to chaos.”