GoFundMe Border Wall Campaign Implodes, Turns to Kris Kobach and Sheriff Clarke
The wall won’t build itself.
Lachlan Markay,
Will Sommer
01.11.19 3:51 PM ET
A decorated veteran who raised more than $20 million to finance construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border has announced that he will instead use the money to finance a new nonprofit group that will build the wall itself—or at least a couple miles of it.
Brian Kolfage’s crowdfunding campaign on the website GoFundMe went viral in December, before news outlets uncovered previous instances in which the triple-amputee veteran appeared to have pocketed funds raised through similar, if far smaller, campaigns billed as efforts to assist wounded warriors.
Now Kolfage, a prolific operator of conspiracy theory Facebook pages, has recruited a team of prominent figures in President Donald Trump’s orbit to run a new 501(c)(4) nonprofit, named We Fund The Wall, to do some wall construction of its own. The new group’s board, Kolfage announced on Friday, includes Erik Prince, the founder of infamous military contract Blackwater; David Clarke, the former scandal-plagued sheriff of Milwaukee County; Fox News contributor Sara Carter; Tom Tancredo, an immigration hardliner and former Colorado congressman; and former Kansas Secretary of State and voter fraud crusader Kris Kobach
“I joined the organization because its mission is of the highest importance to our country,” Kobach told The Daily Beast. “The wall needs to be completed, and it needs to be done as soon as possible. The best way to accomplish that is through a combination of both public and private efforts.”
The group’s formation comes amidst heated fighting in Washington over financing for Trump’s border wall. A partial shutdown of the federal government has persisted for nearly three weeks as Trump and Democratic congressional leaders spar over the former’s demands for more than $5 billion in border wall funding.
Kolfage’s fundraising campaign was initially designed to help finance that construction with private contributions. He insisted that he had been in contact with a number of federal officials and members of Congress devising ways to funnel the massive amounts of money raised on GoFundMe to the federal treasury.
It appears that that plan went awry.
“The federal government won’t be able to accept our donations anytime soon,” Kolfage said in an update on the GoFundMe page on Friday.
It’s not clear how much money from the crowdfunding effort will make it to the nonprofit. GoFundMe is emailing donors with an option to proactively agree to send their money to We Fund the Wall, but if donors decline or never respond to that option, they’ll receive a refund.
more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/gofundme-border-wall-campaign-implodes-turns-to-kris-kobach-and-sheriff-clarke-for-new-non-profit?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon
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