{"id":33664,"date":"2024-10-20T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T23:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33664"},"modified":"2024-10-31T22:22:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T03:22:58","slug":"elon-musks-election-promise-of-1-million-daily-giveaway-sparks-call-for-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=33664","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk&#8217;s election promise of $1 million daily giveaway sparks call for probe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, Oct 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Pennsylvania&#8217;s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, on Sunday called on law enforcement to investigate billionaire Elon Musk for his promise at a weekend pro-Trump rally to give away $1 million each day until Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Musk on Saturday gave a $1 million check to an attendee at the rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was hosted by America PAC, a political action group the Tesla&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/companies\/TSLA.O\"><u>(TSLA.O), opens new tab<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;CEO set up to back Republican&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/donald-trump\/\"><u>Donald Trump<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/elections\/\"><u>Nov. 5 presidential election<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Shapiro said on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; that Musk\u2019s plan to give money to registered voters in Pennsylvania is \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s something that law enforcement could take a look at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The money is the latest example of Musk using his extraordinary wealth to influence the tightly contested presidential race between Trump and his Democratic rival Vice President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/kamala-harris\/\"><u>Kamala Harris<\/u><\/a>. Pennsylvania is a must-win state for both Trump and Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Musk&#8217;s America PAC is playing a major role in helping mobilize and register voters in battleground states that could decide the election, but&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/pro-trump-group-funded-by-musk-struggles-with-outreach-targets-inflation-2024-10-18\/\"><u>there are signs<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;it is having trouble meeting its goals, Reuters was first to report on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The lucky recipient of Saturday&#8217;s check was a man named John Dreher, event staff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you&#8217;re welcome,&#8221; Musk said as he handed Dreher the check.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">On Sunday, Musk handed a second $1 million check to a woman at an event in Pittsburgh, according to a post by America PAC on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Musk is promising to give $1 million each day to someone who signs his online petition, which reads: &#8220;The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">To be eligible for the $1 million, petition signers must be a registered voter and live in one of the seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the America PAC website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The petition also offers $100 to each registered Pennsylvania voter who signs and $100 for referring a registered Pennsylvania voter to sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The legality of the giveaways is sure to come under scrutiny in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">It is a federal crime to pay people with the intention of inducing or rewarding them to cast a vote or to get registered, an offense punishable by prison time. The prohibition covers not only monetary expenditures, but also anything of monetary value like liquor or lottery chances, a Justice Department election-crimes manual says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The Harrisburg event was the third in as many days in Pennsylvania, where Musk is painting November&#8217;s election in stark terms and encouraging supporters to vote early and get others to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Attendees of Saturday&#8217;s event had to sign the petition, which allows America PAC to garner contact details for more potential voters that it can work to get to the polls for Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world&#8217;s richest person, so far has supplied at least $75 million to America PAC, according to federal disclosures, making the group a crucial part of Trump&#8217;s bid to regain the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The entrepreneur has increasingly supported Republican causes and this year became an outspoken Trump supporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Trump in turn has said if elected he would appoint Musk to head a government efficiency commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/elon-musk-promises-award-1-mln-each-day-signer-his-petition-2024-10-20\/\">reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, Oct 20 (Reuters) &#8211; Pennsylvania&#8217;s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, on Sunday called on law enforcement to investigate billionaire Elon Musk for his promise at a weekend pro-Trump rally to give away $1 million each day until Election Day. Musk on Saturday gave a $1 million check to an attendee at the rally in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1637,8058,1330,1230],"class_list":["post-33664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-campaign","tag-donor","tag-musk","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33666,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33664\/revisions\/33666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}