Appearing on the Daily Beast's "The New Normal," Roger Sollenberger -- who has been investigating the campaign finance woes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., -- explained that fundraising for the three has become more difficult as they scramble to ramp up the outrage that normally shakes loose cash from supporters of Donald Trump.
Last week Sollenberger reported that Taylor Greene is spending enormous amounts of cash on fundraising which has created the illusion that she is taking record sums, but now it is catching up with her.
Added to that, he notes, the far-right House lawmakers -- including Rep Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., -- are falling on hard times getting the kind of attention that generated donations.
Labeling them the "MAGA Goon Squad," Sollenberger pointed out to the "New Normal" hosts, that the four GOP lawmakers as a group spent "$275,000 more than they took in in the first quarter of 2022."
Focusing on Greene -- who is facing being bumped off the ballot due to her ties to the Jan 6th insurrection -- he explained, "... this has been a pattern of her fundraising for a long time. Her numbers are kind of a sleight of hand in that way. People really see how much money she's bringing in, but they don't see that she spends a whole lot to get there. And this quarter gave the lie to that. She switched over to this like direct mail campaign and stopped doing so much digital stuff. And then just kind of ate it pretty hard."
He went on to elaborate that trying to raise cash using Jan 6 has lost its luster and the four are "grasping at straws" trying to find a fresh approach to ramp up new outrage.
"They raised so much money off of the controversy that they could stir on the heels of that tumultuous and explosive event that generated so much resentment from the far right and they tapped right into that and were able to stir up millions of dollars last year on the heels of the riot," he stated. "And so in the past few months they've been kind of grasping at straws, right? Greene hasn't really been able to attract much controversial lightning. Gaetz is—you know, his own investigation, we haven't heard much out of it recently, it's ongoing clearly, but it's just not in the news."
"The only person who's been in the news is Cawthorn for his orgy and cocaine remarks, and he just got blasted for that stuff. So they haven't really been able to turn the magic on. The sauce hasn't been there for the past few months and it really shows in the money," he added.
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