Chuck Schumer

She is absolutely lovely, but the texts are awful. So in December of last year, a group of fundraising practitioners and consultants in academics, they wrote this letter to ActBlue with some recommendations about protecting donors from the kind of scam packs, the unscrupulous actors that we were talking about earlier. How can you do that? How can you guys help protect against scam packs?

Did you guys find the recommendations in that letter helpful or were they targeted the wrong people? How do you think about it?

Did you guys find the recommendations in that letter helpful or were they targeted the wrong people? How do you think about it?

Yeah, that's a really important point, right? You can have a sort of annoying, scammy, obnoxious tone, but that doesn't mean the money is going to a bad place. And look, I have empathy for how challenging the task is of identifying or defining a scam pack, because let's say we're talking about a charity.

Yeah, that's a really important point, right? You can have a sort of annoying, scammy, obnoxious tone, but that doesn't mean the money is going to a bad place. And look, I have empathy for how challenging the task is of identifying or defining a scam pack, because let's say we're talking about a charity.

If there was a charity that said they were buying malaria nets for kids, but you look at their expenditures and 85% of it is going to a marketing firm or legal services or overhead, and 15% is going to malaria nets, you're like, aha, nope, bad actors, right? But we're talking about political entities seeking political outcomes. And the expenditures...

If there was a charity that said they were buying malaria nets for kids, but you look at their expenditures and 85% of it is going to a marketing firm or legal services or overhead, and 15% is going to malaria nets, you're like, aha, nope, bad actors, right? But we're talking about political entities seeking political outcomes. And the expenditures...

could be on marketing or ads or whatever and look up on the up and up, but they could be routed through an entity that's affiliated with the person that launched the PAC that's doing the fundraising. So they're getting paid that way.

could be on marketing or ads or whatever and look up on the up and up, but they could be routed through an entity that's affiliated with the person that launched the PAC that's doing the fundraising. So they're getting paid that way.

And I guess the challenge is like, how do you guys root out situations like that where you have someone who starts a PAC and then pays their own firm a bunch of money and profits on the backend, but it seems like that would be tough for you to know.

And I guess the challenge is like, how do you guys root out situations like that where you have someone who starts a PAC and then pays their own firm a bunch of money and profits on the backend, but it seems like that would be tough for you to know.

No mathematicians here.

No mathematicians here.

Philosophy major. Marinate on that. Imagine that was your life. That's the one for you. Imagine.

Philosophy major. Marinate on that. Imagine that was your life. That's the one for you. Imagine.

I just want to switch gears a little bit, which is President Trump has ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to go after ActBlue. Republicans in Congress have been going after ActBlue or investigating ActBlue since 2023.

I just want to switch gears a little bit, which is President Trump has ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to go after ActBlue. Republicans in Congress have been going after ActBlue or investigating ActBlue since 2023.

It's clear their concern is what we've been talking about, which is that ActBlue has become a great way for Democrats to raise a lot of small dollar money and has been very beneficial to the Democratic Party. But what do you think they're looking for? And what has the impact been on you guys from these investigations or these threats?

It's clear their concern is what we've been talking about, which is that ActBlue has become a great way for Democrats to raise a lot of small dollar money and has been very beneficial to the Democratic Party. But what do you think they're looking for? And what has the impact been on you guys from these investigations or these threats?

Let's say Donald Trump snapped his fingers and made ActBlue go away tomorrow. What would the impact be on the Democratic Party?