Citing the American revolution while misspelling “Britian”, Donald Trump’s campaign has filed an extraordinary complaint against the UK’s Labour party for what it claims is “interference” in the US presidential election.
The Trump campaign alleged that in recent weeks, Labour recruited and sent party members to campaign for his opponent, Kamala Harris, in critical battleground states in a bid to influence the 5 November election.
“When representatives of the British government previously sought to go door-to-door in America, it did not end well for them,” says a letter from Trump’s legal team to the Federal Election Commission in Washington.
Dunno really, 1812 worked just fine.
The volunteer for American elections is a long, long, running thing. Trivia really. But it does give Trump a fun little complaint to make and it’ll boost the base just that little bit.
It’s certainly not wholly serious but is utterly stupid and yet another own goal in Labour’s colourful months in office. Labour staffers recruiting volunteers to campaign in the US on an all-expenses paid basis is clear political interference.
Ironically, the impact is likely to be felt in the UK rather more than in the US expecially if Trump wins, D. v.
If a blue-haired foreign xe turned up on my doorstep to lecture me on how I was a bigot if I didn’t vote in a particular way, that would exactly encourage me to vote exactly the opposite.
I would imagine the average American floating voter would feel similarly…
The antics of the Labour mob would be hilarious if they weren’t so sinister. Trump only won in 2016 because of Russian interference! Vile! Undemocratic! But here we are in 2024, with the tossers from the Labour Party having a jolly over the Atlantic to try to make sure Kackle wins and that’s just wonderful. I’m sure Obama and Blair have already decided Kackle’s going to be President regardless of what the voters might want.
Let’s hope it goes as well as last time: https://www.theregister.com/2004/10/25/operation_clark_county/
I agree with Matt, it’ll probably be counter productive. But doesn’t the First Amendment apply to ALL people, not just US citizens? Also, Americans don’t seem to show any reluctance to interfere in our voting. I remember then president, Barrack Obama telling us that Brexit would leave UK at the ‘back of the queue’ on trade.
Sauce for the goose…
“We will sort out your housing”
Who precisely is “we”?
Also who would be paying their airfares and who has already paid the airfares for the “nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the US in the next few weeks”. Will the author, the Head of operations at the Labour Party” be obliged to answer these simple questions?
Answer, like **** she will.
Trump is buying votes, that is worse.
Men who support Trump are like sycophantic men who support the school bully.
Trump is a bad guy.
FrankH, wasn’t it “back of the queue” rather than the American “back of the line” that gave away that “call me Dave” had rehearsed him? I don’t think Obama knew or cared about Britain and the EU…
Thanks to Trump, abuse victims will be forced to give birth to their abuser’s children. That is wrong.
I wonder how the Guardian would cover it if hundreds of Russians showed up to campaign in foreign elections. This is election interference, and the Americans would be within their rights to jail those Labour scumbags.
Men who support Trump are like sycophantic men who support the school bully.
You sound like the kind of person I, The Galloping Steve, used to bully at school.
You’re welcome.
I wonder how the Guardian would cover it if hundreds of Russians showed up to campaign in foreign elections.
Judging by the US establishments shrieking condemnation of the, as far as I know unproven, allegation that Russia spent the colossal sum of $100k* on online “disinformation” at the last election – not at all well.
* coincidentally the approximate cost of transatlantic airfares for 100 “current and former Labour Party members”.
P.s.
https://www.jpost.com/blogs/the-view-from-israel/obamas-shocking-interference-into-israels-election-process-389858
The Obama presidential election team has set up camp in Tel Aviv with the mission to defeat Netanyahu in our upcoming election.
The “Anyone but Bibi” mission is headed by Jeremy Bird, Obama’s National Field Director in his successful presidential campaigns.
This Rèal Man character seems familiar, somehow. Not under that particular nom de guerre perhaps, but maybe under another used to throw nonsense into the thread then depart hastily….
Real Man @ 8.21, Trump didn’t do anything, the Supreme Court did.
And they judged that as the right to an abortion is not in the United States Constitution it is nothing whatsoever to do with the Federal Government, it is a matter for individual states.
If the peeps in those states want abortion they’ll vote for it. Or not.
If I was an American voter, I’d take exactly the stance as I did as a British voter in July 2016 when Obama sought to influence the Brexit referendum.
As Matt Taibbi – one of the few remaining journalists, whose Racket News substack I commend to the house (I’m a paying subscriber) – explains, it’s far, far worse than that:
Text below, but here’s the URL in case you can get onto it – if so, just click ‘Continue Reading’, sometimes he opens stories up to nonpaying members, and it’s got lots of links and other interesting stuff in the actual story: https://www.racket.news/p/election-exclusive-british-advisors
Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to “Kill Musk’s Twitter”
England, not Russia, is the culprit in a real foreign election interference story, as the leaked Stateside plans of an advisory group with close ties to Prime Minister Keir Starmer show
Paul D. Thacker
and Matt Taibbi
Oct 22, 2024
The British are coming, to meddle in our elections!
In an explosive leak with ramifications for the upcoming U.S. presidential election, internal documents from the Center for Countering Digital Hate—whose founder is British political operative Morgan McSweeney, now advising the Kamala Harris campaign—show the group plans in writing to “kill Musk’s Twitter” while strengthening ties with the Biden/Harris administration and Democrats like Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has introduced multiple bills to regulate online “misinformation.” Klobuchar’s office declined repeated requests for comment:
“KILL MUSK’S TWITTER”: The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s May 31st agenda, above a note about meeting “with {Senator Amy] Klobuchar’s team.”
The documents obtained by The DisInformation Chronicle and Racket show CCDH’s hyperfocus on Musk — “Kill Musk’s Twitter” is the first item in the template of its monthly agenda notes dating back to the early months of this year.
KILL, KILL, KILL: No matter what else the CCDH talks about, “Kill Musk’s Twitter” is its first item of business
The Center for Countering Digital Hate is the anti-disinformation activist ally of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, and a messaging vehicle for Labour’s neoliberal think tank, Labour Together. Both the CCDH and Labour Together were founded by Morgan McSweeney, a Svengali credited with piloting Starmer’s rise to Downing Street, much as Karl Rove is credited with guiding George W. Bush to the White House.
The CCDH documents carry particular importance because McSweeney’s Labour Together operatives have been teaching election strategy to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, leading Politico to call Labour and the Democrats “sister parties.” CCDH’s focus on “Kill Musk’s Twitter” also adds to legal questions about the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization.
According to the IRS, CCDH could lose its special tax status if “a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation.” Yet, CCDH’s third item on its annual priority list is “Trigger EU and UK regulatory action” and the group previously employed the firm Lot Sixteen to lobby congressional offices on “misinformation” in Washington.
Both The DisInformation Chronicle and Racket have sent multiple, extensive questions to CCDH’s current CEO Imran Ahmed, another British political operative tied to McSweeney’s Labour Together. Despite repeated requests for comment, Ahmed has refused to respond.
In the last two months, the Washington Post and Politico, among others, have run a series of features about British advisors from Labour Together rescuing the distressed political damsel that is the Harris/Walz campaign. Politico casts McSweeney as the “election mastermind” who first helped Keir Starmer defeat leftist Jeremy Corbyn to become the head of Labour, all the way to Starmer’s “landslide” win over Conservatives to become Prime Minister this past July, implying that McSweeney and his team can perform a similar miracle for Harris.
McSweeney is an ascendant figure, having just been promoted to Starmer’s Chief of Staff in something of a palace coup after the abrupt resignation of longtime Labour fixture Sue Gray. McSweeney is lionized, not just for a Carville-style rightward tilt within the party, but for mastery of fundraising and dark money, having reportedly pulled a host of new wealthy donors to Labour in the last two years.
After 25 years of the “special relationship” being essentially “one-way traffic,” with Washington politicos advising the Brits, the Democrats “now believe they actually have something to learn from Labour,” as Politico explained. Democrats will supposedly learn from Labour’s tactical brilliance. For example, Starmer countered former Conservative PM Rishi Sunak’s accusations of being soft on immigration by promising to “smash the criminal boat gangs” bringing migrants across the English channel.
The new British government also believes that a Harris defeat would leave Starmer “alone” as the “keeper of the center-left flame” and in “worrying isolation” as “the Grand Atlantic Alliance’s last hope.” On top of providing election strategy, over 100 “current and former Labour staffers” have begun knocking on doors for Harris this summer, drawing howls from Trump surrogates such as Sebastian Gorka, who called it a “bloody outrage.”
The Stateside dispatch of Labour personnel has been depicted in British media as a self-interested gambit to keep America’s war machinery closely aligned with Israel and Ukraine, and billions of American defense dollars flowing in both directions.
However, these are only the visible parts of the British invasion. McSweeney’s Labour Together has been operating in the U.S. for several years through CCDH.
The Starmer/Labour Together formula for regaining power in the U.K. relied heavily on CCDH’s aggressive efforts to deplatform rivals on the Left and Right by lobbing accusations of bigotry, misinformation, and other misdeeds. As reported in Tablet and Racket, one of CCDH’s successes involved silencing Starmer’s critics on the left by leading a boycott of advertisers for news sites like the left-leaning Canary, on the grounds that its pro-Palestinian takes were anti-Semitic.
McSweeney has been praised for convincing Starmer that “he needed to sacrifice party unity to demoralize the far-left faction,” as Politico put it.
In the U.S., a now-defunct CCDH offshoot called Stop Funding Fake News led multiple successful boycotts of media figures across the spectrum, from Zero Hedge during the BLM riots to The Federalist. The formula often involved collaborating with a mainstream media outlet to level an accusation of bigotry, followed by a pressure campaign against advertisers to shut off revenue to the target.
“CCDH went directly after us and he worked with Google when they briefly suspended all advertising on Zero Hedge, our primary source of revenue then,” recalls Zero Hedge editor Tyler Durden, noting that the boycott came after CCDH worked with NBC on an article depicting them as racist for claiming damage from BLM riots was under-covered. Similar tactics led to demonetization of The Federalist, whose apparent crime was a June 3, 2020 piece called, “The Media Are Lying to You About Everything, Including the Riots.” Like Zero Hedge, The Federalist criticized mainstream coverage of BLM protests, including calling not-yet-fired CNN anchor Don Lemon a “not very bright man.”
“NBC News colluded with a foreign left-wing group in an attempt to destroy us because it disagrees with our political commentary and media criticism,” The Federalist editor Mollie Hemingway told The Wall Street Journal at the time.
Meanwhile, CCDH launched a separate campaign against Substack claiming the company profited from vaccine disinformation. It failed, as the firm “essentially told them to fuck off” when asked to ban contributors like Alex Berenson and Dr. Joseph Mercola from the platform, as a person with ties to the company put it. Berenson’s crime was the headline, “Vaccines don’t stop Covid hospitalizations or deaths,” an article based on a Journal of the American Medical Association report. “At Substack, we don’t make moderation decisions based on public pressure,” wrote Substack’s then-PR Director Lulu Meservey. CCDH then quietly “backed off.”
Now, CCDH’s growing Washington office is working on similar plans to “kill” the online presence of Democratic rivals like Musk by attacking X’s advertising revenue, a tactic first perfected in London against The Canary. CCDH is also laying the foundation for broader regulatory changes in the direction of platform censorship.
“60 meetings on the Hill,” reads one CCDH task assignment from early 2024. “Meeting with 16 congressional offices over the next two weeks to give updates on the Elon lawsuit,” reads another, referring to Musk’s since-dismissed lawsuit against CCDH accusing it of manipulating data to make a case for proliferation of hate speech on X.
CCDH also held meetings with federal legislators while pushing for “change in USA” toward a censorious proposal it calls the “STAR framework,” which would create an “independent digital regulator” that could “impose consequences for harmful content.” STAR’s core concepts are similar to Europe’s just-instituted Digital Services Act and Britain’s even more stringent Online Safety Act, which puts the national media regulator Ofcom in charge of determining fines for uncooperative platforms.
The latter law has been the basis for Starmer and Ofcom threatening Musk with “strong action” in the wake of this summer’s riots, which the UK claims were fueled by disinformation.
That the CCDH is pushing STAR in the US is obvious from its agenda notes. Equally clear however is that the group held those meetings while its senior officials wondered if they were violating lobbying laws. “Question on lobbying — if it is anything that Congress could have a vote on, it counts as lobbying,” reads one note from a January meeting. “Question on lobbying. Imran needs that to be checked, and if necessary register a c4 ASAP,” reads a later note in February.
“QUERY ON LOBBYING”: Agenda notes from January 22nd show CCDH was ignorant about its legal obligations three years after gaining tax-exempt status
CCDH gained tax-exempt status by registering as a 501(c)(3) organization in the US in 2021, but the IRS says “an organization will be regarded as attempting to influence legislation if it contacts, or urges the public to contact, members or employees of a legislative body for the purpose of proposing, supporting, or opposing legislation.” In some instances, it appears the group is cognizant of that line.
“Understanding our limitations… as a 501c3,” was another part of discussions last January. Nonetheless, the group repeatedly scheduled multiple meetings with legislators to discuss pushing STAR and other proposals, with Ahmed and others openly talking about pushing for legislation and how CCDH’s work “will help us inch towards our goal of regulatory action”:
“TOWARD OUR GOAL OF REGULATORY ACTION”: The tax-exempt CCDH is officially barred from substantial lobbying activities, but not privately.
It’s crucial to understand that CCDH, Labour Together, and Keir Starmer’s Labour Party exist as a single package, with McSweeney at the helm. No political operative in the Western hemisphere is more in demand than Starmer’s “Rasputin,” regularly hailed as a genius. Much like Rove, however, the McSweeney reputation is built more on mudslinging and character assassination than insight into voter needs. Canary-style efforts and boycotts have already begun in the U.S.
McSweeney’s Labour Together colleague Imran Ahmed opened a CCDH office in DC three years ago and began working with American journalists to suppress dissent and enforce narratives friendly to Democrats and the Biden/Harris administration.
The CCDH was also a character in the Twitter Files, notably organizing a letter from State Attorneys General to the platform seeking to ban the so-called “Disinformation Dozen” over Covid-related content, a group that included Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“I hope you will take decisive action to prevent them from endangering people’s safety any longer,” wrote Imran Ahmed in a July 2020 email to Twitter, while forwarding the “The Disinformation Dozen” report.
CCDH and the Twitter Files: Letter to Twitter about the “Disinformation Dozen.”
“The Disinformation Dozen” report coincided nicely with a Biden administration campaign to beat back American fears of the COVID vaccine and was referenced by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a warning that social media companies should censor the accounts.
“There’s about 12 people who are producing 65% of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” Psaki claimed, citing the CCDH’s work. Three years later the truth finally caught up with Ahmed’s misinformation. In recent months, Forbes, The Independent, and The Guardian have all issued corrections to articles on CCDH’s 2021 report noting that Facebook investigated CCDH’s allegations and found them baseless and without proven methodology.
According to documents provided to both publications along with interviews with CCDH whistleblowers, an invitation-only conference held this past summer in Washington underscores the group’s priorities. Attendees at CCDH’s private event included a slew of liberal groups now organizing against Musk including a senior advisor at the White House, a Democratic Party staffer in the office of Congressman Adam Schiff, Biden/Harris State Department officials, Canadian MP Peter Julian (recently tweeted “Boycott all advertisers on Twitter”) and Media Matters for America (a Democratic party-aligned watchdog now locked in a lawsuit with Musk).
From the invite list to CCDH’s June gala in Washington
The second annual CCDH priority on the document reads, “Advertising focus.” This likely references the group’s apparent strategy of publishing reports that claim Musk allowed hate to proliferate on X, followed by efforts to drive away the company’s advertisers, as it did with the Canary, later with Zero Hedge and The Federalist, and most recently has aimed at the entire X platform.
Fresh from success at destroying the Canary and the Labour left, Imran Ahmed brought the CCDH campaign to the States in 2021. And the group has continued to operate as it has in the past: a dark money political campaign that dances around legalities while hiding the names of employees and donors. As reported in Tablet, U.S. tax records show that Ahmed collected $1.47 million in donations in 2021.
Although CCDH does not disclose donors, $1.1 million of that money came from one anonymous donor, meaning almost 75% of CCDH’s funding in their first year. A whistleblower says that CCDH’s management told staff that this initial bolus of funding came from Aleen Keshishian, a Hollywood agent for actor Mark Ruffalo, who promotes Imran Ahmed on X. Keshishian sits on CCDH’s board, and CCDH employees are reminded to treat her nicely.
Another Keshishian client, the singer and actress Selena Gomez, has also apparently provided secret funding to CCDH, although that donation has not been disclosed publicly until now.
Aleen Keshisian did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The DisInformation Chronicle and Racket.
Subsequent reports in this The DisInformation Chronicle and Racket series will contain more information about the emerging theme of cooperation between Hollywood figures and censorship advocacy groups like the CCDH.
STAR BACKING FOR “STAR” CENSORSHIP PROGRAM? Agent Aleen Keshishian with client Selena Gomez, reportedly a CCDH financial backer
Journalist Paul Holden, who put together the “U.K. Files” docs here, reported earlier this year that CCDH’s 2021 submission to the IRS for tax-exempt status claimed CCDH was operating as a registered charity in the U.K.
Neither Ahmed nor his attorneys responded to questions about his false paperwork filed with the IRS. We then ran the documents past tax attorney Dean Zerbe, who authored the tax code reform that governs American nonprofits. Zerbe said he hoped the IRS would take a “hard look” at CCDH for submitting false information to gain nonprofit status.
Many of CCDH’s current staff remain hidden, but one of Ahmed’s most critical employees is Callum Hood, CCDH’s head of research. Like Ahmed, Hood has never fully disclosed his ties to the Labour Party’s conservatives who sought to drive Corbyn from power. On his LinkedIn page, Hood lists the Center for Countering Digital Hate as the only job he has ever held. However, sources in London have provided much of Hood’s background. Like Imran Ahmed, he staffed a member of the Labour Party’s conservative wing.
According to British Parliament records, Hood worked for Labour Party MP Ian Austin. Austin helped lead the charge against Corbyn’s leadership and urged voters to back Conservative Boris Johnson. When Johnson became Prime Minister, he then recommended Austin to the House of Lords.
Austin now goes by the title “Lord Austin of Dudley.”
“This was a political project from the beginning by Labour Together,” Holden says. “It’s extremely disturbing that Imran has influence in the US, considering his key aim is to censor speech he disagrees with.”
NEXT: The DisInformation Chronicle and Racket give an insider’s account of the internal chaos and secret money fueling CCDH, one of the most prominent and respected groups for the Censorship Industrial Complex.
Steve ; You are evil for being a school bully. Bullies are no different to any other form of child abuse. The fact.you are proud to be a bully shows you are a warped guy with sadistic issues. I see bullies as no different to child sex abusers. Both abuse children.
John – I’m pretty sure if they’re travelling on a tourist visa it’s probably illegal to do what they’re doing.
But NB these people already live in America in their AIDS-ravaged minds. The Extremely Online Left is full of deracinated people who only know the worst and shittiest of American cultural exports, and nothing else. That’s why Two Tier felt obliged to kneel for a black American criminal who died of a fentanyl overdose.
At least Russia would give us vodka, caviar, and army guys in huge hats singing. Blyat.
Steve you call yourself a Christian and are then proud to have bullied children. You are a typical sadist who takes pleasure in the abuse of children. I call men like you creeps. Jesus would not have supported child abuse.
I think the election jolly should be viewed together with this coordinated effort with whoever puppeteers Kamala.
https://x.com/toadmeister/status/1848997845807866026
Ie Kier and Kamala wish the airing and discussion of inconvenient views to be banished as we march into the glorious WEF/UN Agenda 2030 future, a dystopia constructed by humorless and self righteous midwits
It’s best to not feed the troll
Steve ; You are evil for being a school bully.
Yes, I am evil. So are you.
Bullies are no different to any other form of child abuse. The fact.you are proud to be a bully shows you are a warped guy with sadistic issues. I see bullies as no different to child sex abusers. Both abuse children.
Not so tough now after being bummed, are you?
Steve.
Genuine LOL.
I have not been bummed.
If you raped boys, then I think that you will go to Hell.
Child sex abuse is evil. I am fed up with evil Christians who think being Christian makes up for them being abusers.
CHILD SEX ABUSE AND BULLYING ARE EVIL.
Jimmers You should not support abusers.
Steve- I am not evil. Bullies and child abusers are evil. Only warped, creepy, sick, depraved, and strange people abuse children.
Only warped, creepy, sick, depraved, and strange people abuse children.
Particularly people of a certain religion, who coincidentally also have a problem with Christians, in towns and cities all over northern England N’est-ce Pas?
Those Labour staffers knocking on doors in some states campaigning for Willy Brown’s squeeze may well find themselves on the wrong end of the 2nd Amendment.
I’m imagining the TTK TODO list looks like this:
1.) Wreck UK economy – started
2.) Pick fight with world’s richest man – done
3.) Release violent criminal scum – done
4.) Interfere in US elections – done
I’m sure they’ll finish item 1 next week.
5. Move ornaments around on Lord Alli’s bookcase in readiness for the next broadcast to the nation – to do.
@ Interested
It is interesting how the leftards resolutely ignore the activities of CCDH which directly links to the UK government, preferring to comment on the 100 ‘volunteers’ who will make zero impact on an election of the scale of the US presidential election
Mind you, they may be employed stuffing ballots and voting for elderly and dead people
El Camino Rèal: Steve was gently winding you up, which is what we do here to humourless interlopers with all the expressiveness of poorly educated 8-year olds. If you had a reasoned point to make, rather than just “Trump is evil” then you might get a better reception. You still may not like the point of view but at least the discussion could be at a slightly higher intellectual level.
If you don’t want to do that, please go forth and multiply like a mayfly.
– At least Russia would give us vodka . . .
Niet so much to spare now, comrade Steve. Blyat, yes; many many blyat.
Tractor Gent You are not a gent in any way. You step in to fights to help the bully. Only creepy warped depraved individuals support bullies. He was not gently winding me up he was speaking up for bullies.
Get a new brain.
Tractor Gent – I have a sense of humour. I like Frasier, Only fools and horses, Seinfeld, Friends, Bilko, Curn your enthusiasm, Laurel and Hardy.
SUPPORTING THE ABUSE OF CHILDREN IS NOT FUNNY.
Tractor Gent ; Having a sense of humour does not make you right or good.
If you laugh at people doing abuse you are evil.
Lots of evil people have had a sense of humour.
1. The Killer Clown Wayne Gracy was not right for abusing people while he dressed as a clown.
2. Hitler had a sense of humour. He was still evil.
3. Jeffrey Dahmer was a practical joker at school and prison. He was not good or right for having a sense of humour.
Anyone who makes jokes supporting rape and bullying is evil.
I don’t think “Britian” is a misspelling there.
There’s Britain, the nation, and Britian, the general attitude of deluded faith in a grandeur that has long faded, in which Britain had an empire and some actual clout in the world in general.
The latter displayed mainly by the blob of politicians, Journalists, and “civil servants” with a suspiciously similar educational background and political flavour.
Funny, isn’t it? I don’t think any normal person gives a toss about our lost Empire. Except when it all comes and tries to live here.
The Blob’s obsession is because they can’t bear just to be the ruling class of an insignificant country. It’s beneath them. That’s why they’re so desperate to be “Europeans”. 500 million population? Now that’s worth ruling.