Posted on 04/23/2016 6:35:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of Trump’s most enduring and arguably most endearing campaign lines has been his promise to treat American vets better. When Trump dropped out of a Fox News debate in January he held a separate event at which he raised money for veterans. But three months later, Trump’s campaign adviser for veterans, Al Baldasaro, doesn’t seem too concerned about it. He told the Daily Beast, “I’m not concerned about it, because I know [Trump is] an honorable, honest guy… you guys just want to say, ‘gotcha.’”
To be fair, Baldasaro is not a Trump staffer. The real problem is that anyone who has attempted to track down the $6 million raised has been unable to find more than about half that amount that was actually delivered to veterans’ groups. From the Daily Beast:
Since the fundraiser, numerous media organizations have investigated whether the charities have received the $6 million. The investigations span the ideological spectrum: the progressive MSNBC and the conservative Weekly Standard have been unable to find all the funds; as have The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and The Daily Beast.
The money simply hasn’t been found.
In early March, CNN was able to track down $2.9 million, citing the Trump campaign. In early April, The Wall Street Journal traced $2.4 million of the promised funds.
That CNN total of $2.9 million was based on a list of 29 veterans organizations shown to the network by a Trump spokesperson, so that seems to be the best case scenario. However, when CNN checked with those organizations one of them said they had not seen any money yet and the majority refused to comment:
When contacted by CNN, only nine groups confirmed they had received payments totaling $800,000, one group said no payment had yet been made, and the rest either refused to disclose contributions or did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
A Trump spokesperson told CNN contributions would continue as money came in from donors, but why wait for money to come in?
Trump made a big point of raising this money for veterans. That was an honorable thing to do. He could do vets another solid (and maybe gain a little of his declining favorability back) by stepping up and advancing the money from his own bank account if necessary. Doing so would be a win for his campaign and a win for veterans.
Man, they keep trying don’t they? I wonder if one thinks when they post this crap “ok that’s it, because of this column I am turning my allegiance from Trump”. Jeez.
Post a coherent source for that.
That's the key point right there. People pledge to things all the time, but often they don't follow through. Nevertheless, the Trump team needs to issue a statement clearing this up. Just report money actually received, and money actually dispersed.
Thanks for the regular updates on the progress being made. Sounds like the project is moving along nicely.
So, you really have nothing substantive... Just another subject change.
Okay, thanks.
I know someone who serves on a number of charity boards. One of the most important things they do, is to ensure that groups that receive their funds have great integrity and they use donations wisely. The PR backlash if they make a mistake is enormous, and impacts their fundraising going forward.
The charities requesting funds are most certainly being vetted, so they don’t wind up on CNN, FOX, MSNBC as being corrupt operations. Especially when you consider if they make a mistake, the enemies will go crazy over it.
I wouldn’t worry much about it. The money will get where it will do the most good.
And, that will somehow make up for what Trump promised and didn’t deliver on?
Don’t you realize - attacking Trump, for real or imagined peccadilloes, is the goal! It’s much more important than keeping Hillary out of the White House.
You don’t have anything substantive either, picking on Trump over charity is as pathetic as accusing Cruz of paying off delegates. How much did Cruz donated to the 911 memorial??
Here’s another change of subject;
Cruz’s perfect family
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK3QqDs6yiU
Ted inhaled cocaine.
He’ll deliver. Read post 6.
LOL!!!
So of 29 groups only one has confirmed it has not received anything, YET!
All I know is that most of the money disappeared six years ago and other than big signs and a lot of PENNDOT traffic tie-ups on I-376 between the City of Pittsburgh and the airport ever since, there has been precious little evidence of infrastructure spending here.
Eventually, I am sure they will get it done. Maybe when I am too old to drive to the airport anymore.
Promises to the voters will not be kept either. This pos will lie to anyone. He is a charlatan and con man and the supporters are being hoodwinked.
Did Cruz LIE about it? NO.
tRump LIED like all good LIBERALS do. Hoodwinked you again
It's also ridiculous for the CruzBots at HotAir, Redstate and Twitchy to whine about this, given the fact that Lyin' Ted gave less than 1% of his income to charity.
It’s a lie of omission to not tell the whole story, to deliberately tell half truths, and misrepresent. Ted “A Time For Lies” Cruz does that ALL THE TIME. That’s not what “A Time For Truth” means to me - and I’d like a refund.
No one builds a 10B business and signs 22k paychecks lying like Ted does. That is why Donald Jr said politicians like Ted “wouldn’t last five minutes in business”.
Read 56.
“by stepping up and advancing the money from his own bank account”
The money phrase wherein these A holes admit he did not yet receive the money pledged. BTW, he has no reason to “advance” anything. I think during one of his next appearances he should ram this commentary right where their sun don’t shine by stating exactly what was paid in and what went out and to where it went.
As a side issue, there is a local and now national scandal brewing about one of those proposed recipients, the Wounded Warrior Project. The founder was forced to step down over alleged squandered money. My sense is if Trump had put all the money into that program he would have been called a money waster. No good deed goes unpunished in the land of the political discourse raging.
FWIW, I sit on the board of a local charity. One cannot be amazed how many groups are soliciting money from us some with dubious causes, plans or ideas. We have to be very judicious in our selection process by weighing their overheads verses their outcomes. Some are truly startling.
No, the Clinton Crime Family foundation and PAC is not on our list!
When Ted Cruz was head of the NSRC, he transferred $250,000 as requested by his then-boss Mitch McConnell which was used to pay for the ads that accused Chris McDaniel of being a racist and got Thad Cochran elected. So if you want to talk about being hoodwinked, look no further than the junior senator from Texas.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.