Opinion

GOP Establishment Money Funding Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Erick Erickson To Attack Trump

(SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Roger Stone Political Consultant
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The next time you hear Mark Levin on the radio, or watch Glenn Beck on TV, or read Erick Erickson, RedState.com on the Internet, you might just ask yourself who is paying for the message?  And why is it so stridently anti-Trump?

Don’t fool yourself. They’re doing it for the money.

As the spearhead of the “Dump Trump” movement, the same GOP establishment big-dollar donors and PACS that are pushing House Speaker Paul Ryan as a dark-horse presidential candidate, despite the big-government omnibus-budget deals Ryan reached last year with President Obama, are funding Mark Levin, Erick Erickson,  and Glenn Beck, to promote Sen. Ted Cruz.

Follow the Money

The Conservative Tree House blog exposed the financial nexus supporting prominent “conservative” pundits to promote in their media outlets Ted Cruz as the last, best hope to block Trump in Wisconsin, a state considered by the Washington-based GOP establishment as perhaps the last establishment firewall to block Trump from the GOP presidential nomination.

“These financial/media relationships have largely and historically, remained hidden,” a blogger identified simply as “sundance” noted in an article posted on TheConservativeTreeHouse.com on Wednesday. “They have sure never been publicly, clearly, and regularly stated so the consuming audience would know the presentation was fraught with financial conflict.”

$400k for Mark Levin books

“The Senate Conservatives Fund (PAC) purchasing massive quantities ($400,000) of Mark Levin’s books in exchange for favorable candidacy political opinion. Conveniently hidden by the radio host who avoids mentioning the financial conflict created,” the blog pointed out.

On Jan. 13, Ben Jacobs in an article published by the Daily Beast headlined “Pay to Play?” noted that Politico, in an article that now appears to have been scrubbed from Politico’s website, reported on how the GOP establishment seeks to buy Levin.

The Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a “conservative” fund founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina that backed Cruz in his Senate fight against Obamacare, spent $427,000 to buy copies of radio talk show host Mark Levin’s four-year-old book “Liberty or Tyranny” to distribute to donors – a purchase that should have earned Levin approximately $1 million in royalties.

Despite his many diatribes against Trump broadcast to his national radio audience, Levin hid the fact the son of his fiancé is a full-time staffer for Cruz.

Glenn Beck rolls in cash from Cruz-supporting Super-PAC

GOP establishment political operative David Barton not only runs “Keep the Promise” one of the most prominent pro-Cruz Super-PACs, he also serves as the chairman of Glen Beck’s “Mercury One” charity.

So, the next time you see Glenn Beck on his knees proclaiming that Ted Cruz is the “anointed one,” deemed by God to be president of the United States, you might ask yourself if God also deemed Barton to put at Beck’s disposal the millions in Super-PAC money he can funnel to Beck, so long as Beck continues to sing Ted Cruz’s tune.

Erick Erickson gets $3 million to support “The Resurgent”

Yet even these political whores do not top “conservative” Erick Erickson, founder of RedState.com, who funds his media venture “The Resurgent” with Super-PAC money from the Ricketts family of Wisconsin, big backers of Gov. Scott Walker (who incidentally endorsed Cruz).

ConservativeTreeHouse.com documented that the Ricketts family funded Our Principles PAC to the tune of $3 million in February alone.  We should not be surprised when FEC filings show money from Our Principles PAC flowing to Resurgent Media, with the box “Oppose Trump” checked off as the Erickson media group’s purpose.

“In addition to all of those in the Salem Media Communications network, along with Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, Erick Erickson and anyone who is hosted upon the various media enterprises they front for…. all paid shrills dependent upon political graft,” the ConservativeTreeHouse.com article concludes.

“Interesting indeed how the intersection of financial dependency drives the political ideology of these modern “conservative voices”. However, this does increasingly explain how those same voices will stand and cheer for Mr. No-Budget/Omnibus, House Speaker Paul Ryan.”

What’s the point, the ConservatieTreeHouse.com asks? Smaller government? Yeah, sure.