HOUSE DEMOCRATS ARE LYING TO YOU

Ohio’s House Democrats are lying to you.

Don’t be shocked – it's what Democrats do.

President Biden keeps lying about inflation by claiming it was nine-percent when he took office. It is such an obvious lie that even left-leaning CNN is calling him out.

House Democrats are using the same playbook.

Seeking power by any means necessary – even lying to your face.

Here's the proof.

The Ohio Senate passed two House bills on Friday. One fixes the Democrats’ scheduling mess and ensures President Joe Biden will be on the Ohio ballot in November. The other bans foreigners from donating to campaigns supporting or opposing state ballot initiatives in Ohio.  

Ohio House Minority Leader Russo virulently opposed this common-sense legislation in an editorial this week that expressed her cohorts’ efforts to claw tooth and nail in a vain attempt to keep those millions of foreign dollars flowing into Democrat coffers.

Writing in the Columbus Dispatch on May 28, Russo falsely claimed “any contribution of foreign money in our elections is already illegal under federal law, and these federal restrictions also apply to state campaigns.”

House Democrats certainly know that is not true.

This is not just a lie – it’s a Big Lie meant to gaslight the public.

The abundant evidence contradicting that lie is a matter of public record and not even in dispute.

     •     Both national and state media have widely reported that a foreign billionaire largely bankrolled the left’s campaigns for issue initiatives on the Ohio ballot last year.

     •     NBC reported that the liberal dark-money group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, spent $12 million dollars on ballot campaigns in Ohio in 2023.

     •     The Associated Press and others widely reported that Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss poured hundreds of millions of dollars into that fund.

     •     Even the left-leaning Cleveland Plain Dealer admitted the Sixteen Thirty Fund spent millions supporting the left on ballot issues in Ohio last year.

     •     The paper further reported that the Sixteen Thirty Fund is back at it, meddling in Ohio politics by already giving more than half-a-million dollars to “Citizens Not Politicians”, the radical progressive group trying to overturn our state redistricting laws.

But House Democrats have the gall to look the camera in the face and deny reality.

They know full well that the law banning foreign donations applies only to candidates, not ballot initiatives – on both the federal and state levels.

Here is the conclusive and publicly available evidence that contradicts Russo’s claim that “any contribution of foreign money in our elections is already illegal under federal law”:

     •     The Federal Election Commission specifically recommended in December that federal law on the "Foreign National Prohibition" be amended to "Include State and Local Ballot Initiatives." 

     •     Meaning, federal law most certainly does not currently prohibit contributions by foreigners to state ballot initiatives.

     •     You can read that memo here.

In fact, one need only conduct a quick internet search to see dozens of articles related to the Federal Elections Commission’s continued stance that foreign-national money can be used to influence American voters.

The Commission’s full recommendation goes through its prior decisions where it concluded, “FECA’s foreign national prohibition does not reach ballot initiatives that do not appear to be linked to an office-seeking candidate at the federal, state or local level.”

A few more clicks and you will find those opinions yourself, as well as federal legislation to close this foreign-money loophole in our issue elections.

There’s no question on the law. But that didn’t stop Russo from calling it the GOP’s “foreign money lie.”

The irrefutable facts show who is really lying.

As OTR has already reported, House Democrats know they are spreading fake news. They know the law. They simply aren't telling the truth. It’s a truth so inconvenient they are compelled to lie about it.

House Democrats also surely know that foreign contributions to ballot initiative campaigns are not banned by Ohio law. That is merely an opinion expressed in 2021 by the Ohio Elections Commission that you can read here.

If that opinion had the force of law, clearly, the Sixteen Thirty Fund would not have been able to spend more than $12 million to boost Democrat causes last year.

Democrats have no answer to that irrefutable fact.

So they resort to denial.

That’s all they’ve got – the Big Lie.

Now you know what House Democrats are doing – lying to keep their dark money.

Next time, we’ll tell you exactly why they’re doing it.