As we reported earlier, triple amputee veteran Brian Kolfage started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for President Trump’s southern border wall. The campaign, which began four days ago, went viral and as of this writing has raised close to $13 million. According to GoFundMe, this would make Kolfage’s effort the third-highest fundraiser of the year.
Apparently this didn’t sit too well with Washington Post tech reporter Tony Romm, who reached out to GoFundMe in an apparent effort to get the campaign yanked.
“So there’s an effort on GoFundMe to raise cash money for a border wall. Has more than $5M in donations (seeking $1B) and claims to have contacts in the Trump admin (have asked for more). But it got me thinking: is that, like, allowed on the site?” he posted on Twitter.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
“GoFundMe terms prohibit attempts to raise cash money rooted in ‘intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases,’ among other limits,” he added.
He was told by GoFundMe that the campaign does not violate their standards. This he reveals in a third tweet: “So I asked GoFundMe if this wall fundraiser violates that. Spox: ‘This campaign does not violate our terms of service. The funds are safely held by our payment processor and we will work with the organizer to transfer funds or return them if target isn’t met.”
He then wondered if it was even legal for the campaigners to even discuss this with the Trump administration:
this was my next question — how does that work, and what about the contention in the pitch itself that there are convos with Trump admin officials? are they allowed to have those convos? https://t.co/juIi29Dbtq
— Tony Romm (@TonyRomm) December 20, 2018
It’s worth noting that by this point Romm was well beyond the job description of journalist and into the capacity of lobbyist, but don’t expect his bosses at the Post to complain too loudly. The entire paper has become an enabler for the Democratic Party.
As for Romm’s grievance, he could have found an answer at the GoFundMe page, where Kolfage notes that this fundraising effort is not without precedent, stating: “The government has accepted large private donations before, most recently a billionaire donated $7.5 Million to fund half of the Washington Monument repairs in 2012; this is no different.”
Of course that was during Obama’s term in the White House, so naturally the rules would be different.
The Gateway Pundit’s Kristinn Taylor took Romm to task and compared his actions to those of the “Cultural Revolution” in Communist China:
Always interesting to see reporters acting like the Red Guard of the Cultural Revolution. pic.twitter.com/9ZnKIw1zsO
— Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) December 20, 2018
After being outed for his attempt, Romm posted: “the state of our discourse is such that this thread — which merely explores the funding campaign in the context of the site’s ToS — is a political lightning rod. somehow the most boring legalese has turned into a rallying cry for a certain set of users to go on the attack”
Poor baby!
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