Fact Check AZ: We oblige factcheckthisad.com's request

On this week's episode, we take whomever built the website factcheckthisad.com up on their offer, and dissect multiple ads that go after Arizona congressional challengers.

Transcript:

Steve Jess: Welcome to the Fact Check Arizona podcast from AZPM. In each episode, we'll look at a particular claim about elections in Arizona. We'll set the record straight and also give a sense of the context surrounding the claim. I'm Steve Jess.

This week we're diving into a topic we couldn't resist. Joining me is producer, Zac Ziegler. Zac, what drew our attention to these ads?

Zac Ziegler:Yeah, Steve. So I was playing a puzzle game on my phone, nonograms for anyone who's curious, when I was hit with an attack ad against Congressional District Six Democratic Candidate Kirsten Engel. And the ad had a web address that was literally factcheckthisad.com. So when you told me when I was talking about this that you'd seen it elsewhere too, this seemed too, this just seemed too good to pass up.

SJ: Before we get into this, let's start by saying we don't know exactly who was asking for this fact check. We checked the 'Who Is' registry for the web page, this is where you can look up who a webpage is registered to, and it is registered in proxy through GoDaddy.

With that said, let's play the audio of that ad.

(ad audio) Kris Van Cleave: A high-speed pursuit near the border in southeast Arizona. It’s just another night for sheriff’s deputies . . . Voice-over: The border crisis has law enforcement overwhelmed, but extreme liberal Kirsten Engel doesn't care. Ted Simons: Kirsten does Arizona have an immigration crisis? Kirsten Engel: No . . . VO: Engel even denied state troopers millions needed to handle the surge. TS: Kirsten does Arizona have an immigration crisis? KE: No . . . VO: Liberal Kirsten Engel, too extreme to keep you safe. The Congressional Leadership Fund is responsible for the content of this advertising.

SJ: So Zac, there are four claims in there that come with citations. The first one comes right off the top.

ZZ: It does, we hear a news clip that says it's from CBS News on October 5, 2023 and talks about high speed chases along the border. It's five seconds long,

A high-speed chase near the border in southeast Arizona.

ZZ: So I wanted to get the context. Now, it wasn't easy, but I did eventually find this story. It wasn't on the CBS News webpage. I had to transcribe the section, punch it into Google in quotes, and that led me to a webpage for a conservative media watchdog group, which had a link to a Twitter video of the story from CBS Mornings done by Kris Van Cleave. It was about high speed pursuits by Cochise County Sheriff's deputies of people smuggling migrants to the Phoenix area.

The video talks about how many of those who are the smugglers are US citizens. So, while brief, it does fit the context.

SJ: Now, onto a clip that starts around the 11-second mark that says it's from Arizona PBS, our counterparts up the highway in Phoenix.

Kirsten does Arizona have an immigration crisis? No.

ZZ: Yes, so that clip features Ted Simons, host of Arizona Horizon who moderated the Clean Election Commission debate for the 2022 Democratic primary in the sixth district.

This came at around the 15-minute mark of the debate, let's play the full 75-second version of that answer rather than just the couple of seconds you hear in the ad.

TS: Kirsten does Arizona have an immigration crisis? KE: No. It does need help at the border, we do. Washington, I would say has failed us. And it's it's not just this administration; it's the past administration. We do need help at our border. We do need to secure our border. We have issues of drug trafficking and human smuggling that have to be addressed, but certainly not walls. I mean walls are 13th century solution to a 21st century problem. I mean, let's look at what's going on here. We have people, migrants, coming who want to make a a home in our country, you know. We we, these people are are you know like our ancestors, coming here and that is, that's the crisis. That's a humanitarian crisis and what we need from Washington is help having an orderly asylum process. That's national law, that's international law. We have to get that done. We need comprehensive immigration reform and we've got to help our dreamers.

SJ: So listening to that, they definitely a cherry-picked edit of what was a more nuanced answer.

ZZ: Yes, no surprise that a 30-second attack ad from anyone, really, removes context.

SJ: The ad then claims Engel denied state troopers money to handle the surge. As we said in a previous episode, federal law says state troopers and other local police are not supposed to handle illegal immigration in the first place. That is the job of the Border Patrol.

What the ad points to is a Real Clear Politics article from April 2022. That is a site that started out as an aggregator of polling data, but today leans conservative. What did that article say, Zac?

ZZ: Here's the direct quote from the article authored by political correspondent Susan Crabtree, which referenced Engel's primary challenger in 2022, Daniel Hernandez, as well: "Both Engel and Hernandez voted against bills providing millions of dollars for the state’s Border Strike Force, a highly trained group of state troopers who have helped fight criminal activity in Arizona communities since its creation by Ducey in 2015."

No bill was mentioned there, but the claim apparently refers to a budget bill.

On the topic of the Border Strike Task Force, the Arizona Republic found that it inflated its numbers, claiming to help in arrests that its officers weren't around for, and most of its arrests came outside of the state's four border counties.

The Strike Force seemed to have some partisanship in its history. Phoenix's NPR station, KJZZ, reported that Santa Cruz County Sheriff Democrat David Hathaway was glad to hear that Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs was trying to kill it, while Cochise County Sheriff Republican Mark Dannels said he welcomed any help, particularly though the local funding that was handed out as a party of the strike force.

This does tie back into that original story from CBS, which strongly featured Dannels and the dangerous work his deputies are doing. One almost dies in a pursuit during that story, but it took a lot of research to make that link and the ad doesn't do more than vaguely hint at it.

SJ: Now, the last citation in this ad is mis-attributed. This one is again of Ted Simons on Arizona PBS, but it says it's from that CBS News report.

ZZ: Yeah, we hear the same audio,

Kirsten does Arizona . . .

ZZ: See Simons and Engel on the same set and in the same clothes, but the citation is the same from the first claim, CBS News on October 5, 2023.

SJ: So, there's a flat out error and issues with context in that ad. We hear mention at the end of who put it out, the Congressional Leadership Fund Super PAC.

ZZ: Yes, and when you go to the website we mentioned, factcheckthisad.com, it takes you to the CLF's YouTube page.

That page features a number of ads pertaining to tight congressional races, so I browsed for other Arizona races, and only found one more for this election, an attack ad against Democrat Amish Shah, who is running against embattled Republican David Schweikert for a northwest Phoenix-area seat.

Border chaos is causing crime and making us less safe. And liberal politician Amish Shah made it worse . . .

ZZ: That ad was similarly laced with issues. It claims that Shah, in his time in the Arizona legislature, "Voted against funding for our police" and "Opposed cracking down on drugs and human trafficking."

Each of those cites bills that, yes, he voted against. They were the bills that approved the state budget in 2019 and 2020. And, again, in the years before Arizona had shared governance, those bills often had party-line votes.

It also mentioned that Shah, "Voted for early release of criminals." The bills it cites were reforms to Arizona's rules for early release credits, that's what an inmate earns by completing classes or doing other tasks that show they're ready to leave prison. Those bills passed on nearly-unanimous bipartisan votes.

One was a bill allowing for more credits for non-violent drug offenders who finish treatment programs. That bill was sponsored by Eddie Farnsworth. The other was a more general revamp of early release credits sponsored by Walt Blackman.

SJ: Both of those are Republicans who are known for conservative stances.

ZZ: And Blackman's bill included co-sponsors such as Shah and Kirsten Engel, but also current outgoing state House Speaker Ben Toma, and other noted conservatives like Leo Biasiucci, Shawnna Bollick and John Fillmore.

SJ: So, disingenuous to say the least. Did it include any facts that did not need correcting?

ZZ: Yes, at the end, it says Shah was "Endorsed by Defund the Police Radicals," and cites a group called Reproductive Freedom for All.

On April 20, 2021, that group posted the following tweet, "It’s past time to defund the police. After multiple failed attempts to change the culture of policing, it’s clear that police have not succeeded in reckoning with the generations of systemic racism, oppression, and state violence it has engaged in. We must continue to do better."

And Shah was one of seven endorsements it made on September 5.

So, while we can quibble over the use of the word 'radical,' it is true that Shah has been endorsed by a group which also called for the defunding of the police.

SJ: Although, it is important, Shah has not espoused such views himself.

ZZ: Not that I could find. And I'll sum up by saying I found another anti-Engel ad on that Congressional Leadership Fund YouTube page, this one from her 2022 run, and it was similarly riddled with quotes taken out of context regarding the funding of law enforcement.

We'll post the ad and the full Clean Elections Debate video on our website for anyone who is interested.

SJ: So, let's dive into who exactly the Congressional Leadership Fund is, and why they are putting out ads with what we can call questionably biased content at best and misinformation at worst.

ZZ: Well, the CLF's website says it is "dedicated exclusively to one goal: winning a Republican Majority in the House of Representatives"

Its president is Dan Conston, he comes from the advertising world and has also worked in the press offices of Senators Marco Rubio and Jerry Moran, Rep. Peter Roskam, and in the McCain-Palin presidential campaign.

I dug through its financials and found that, according to Open Secrets, the Congressional Leadership Fund has raised $131 million so far this cycle, not including the most recent reports, which are due this week.

Unsurprisingly, all of that has been spent on helping Republican candidates.

SJ: And so who does that $131 million come from?

ZZ: Well, the biggest donor, about $22 million comes from what it calls its sister issue advocacy group, American Action Network, which again, according to Open Secrets, has not raised any money since 2010, but still manages to donate millions.

As for its top donors, there are four people who have donated more than $10 million to CLF this election cycle, all are in the finance/hedge fund world and have net worths between six billion and almost 50 billion dollars according to Forbes. Those are Kenneth Griffin, Paul Singer, Timothy Mellon and Jeff Yass.

Two of those are GOP mega-donors. Mellon has given more than $165 million this cycle, and Forbes called him Trump's biggest donor back in June.

Yass was, at one point, the top campaign contributor in this cycle, handing out more than $46 million to candidates. Reuters reports he was a big donor to Republicans who challenged Trump in the primary, though that changed back in March after they met.

Something also changed after that meeting; Trump changed his tone about banning Tik Tok, and Yass is a major investor in the app's owner, ByteDance.

SJ: It’s worth noting that all this spending is a direct result of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which ruled that political action committees like CLF enjoy an unlimited right to spend on political causes, under the first amendment. In fact, they have greater freedom than candidates do.

Moving along, who else is contributing to the Congressional Leadership Fund?

ZZ: Once you get below that $10 million threshold, it's a mix of individuals, interest groups and companies. So I looked at donors in the seven-figure range based mostly around their industry.

There were two big leaders. Nine of those million-plus donors were in the investment/hedge fund world, just like those who were in the $10+ million. Then eight in the oil/petrochemical world.

Beyond that it was a mix of pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, real estate, tobacco, media, information and manufacturing.

SJ: Well, Zac, thanks for helping fact check those who ask for it. Let this be a lesson in careful domain name registration.

And thank you for listening. If you have any ideas for an episode, you don't need to register a website with a name like 'factcheckthisad.com' or place online ads, just go to our website, which is news.azpm.org, and contact us.

For Zac Ziegler, I'm Steve Jess, thanks for listening to this episode of Fact Check Arizona