Meet AIPAC’s Nightmare: The Activists Tracking the Lobby’s Dark Money

Quick Overview

Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy, co-founders of Track AIPAC, successfully launched an effort to track and publicly report on AIPAC's political spending, which they found to be substantial and often hidden, leading to a significant increase in awareness and inspiring parallel efforts in other lobbying sectors like Big Pharma and the NRA.

Key Points: Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy co-founded Track AIPAC to monitor and publicize the political spending of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Track AIPAC spent $14 million on anti-Bohman ads in the past, and the organization's spending is often not transparently accessible in public filings. After the October 7th events, Track AIPAC experienced rapid growth, reaching hundreds of thousands of followers online, and they received an email from a corporate job threatening them. The co-founders noted that AIPAC's behavior has changed, increasingly distancing itself from the Israeli government and targeting critics like themselves and other anti-corruption advocates. The founders deliberately formatted their tracking information simply to make it digestible, as the raw data from FEC filings is not easily accessible. The success of Track AIPAC has inspired parallel tracking projects focusing on other powerful lobbies, such as those for Big Pharma and the NRA. The normalization of political influence, exemplified by figures like Tucker Carlson claiming moral high ground while receiving funding from AIPAC, underscores the need for transparency.

Context: The video features an interview on the Zeteo program 'Mehdi Unfiltered' with Cory Archibald and Casey Kennedy, the co-founders of Track AIPAC. Track AIPAC is an organization dedicated to transparency regarding the campaign finance activities of AIPAC, a major pro-Israel lobbying group in US politics. The conversation focuses on the challenges of exposing dark money in politics, the backlash they have faced, and the broader implications of unchecked lobbying power in Washington.