A Trump supporter who was targeted by the Biden Justice Department for posting satirical memes during the 2016 election was recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-supporter-gets-case-tossed-after-biden-doj-was-ready-to-imprison-him-for-memes?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Supporter+Gets+Case+Tossed+After+Biden+DOJ+Was+Ready+To+Imprison+Him+For+Memes">vindicated in court.</a>  Now, he plans to fight back by suing the feds.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-doj-trying-to-lock-up-a-pro-trump-meme-maker-for-ten-years-heres-what-you-need-to-know">Douglass Mackey</a>, who was charged by the Biden DOJ some four years after posting the memes in question, faced a stunning 10 years behind bars. After the Justice Department secured a conviction in New York City, Mackey was sentenced to seven months behind bars in 2023, but the sentence was delayed by an appeals court. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed Mackey’s conviction and directed a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal.
Speaking to The Daily Wire on Thursday, Mackey said he plans to file a civil lawsuit against the Department of Justice for political weaponization and misconduct, and suggested he&#8217;ll be seeking damages totaling at least a million dollars.
“As the Circuit Court ruled, this case was brought without sufficient evidence,&#8221; Mackey said. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t have any evidence of an actual conspiracy, and that&#8217;s just the first problem with the case — there are multiple that the court didn&#8217;t even bother ruling on because they just looked and said there&#8217;s no evidence. Based on that, we have to assume that they brought this case for political reasons, because why else would you bring this case?&#8221;
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s egregious,&#8221; Mackey continued. &#8220;I think that it&#8217;s politicized weaponization and I think it&#8217;s misconduct.&#8221;
&#8220;The damages are a lot,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I mean, if we&#8217;re talking about just purely legal fees, we&#8217;re talking 1 million to $1.5 million that I had to raise. And a lot of [that] I spent a lot of my own money.”
Though Mackey was ultimately acquitted, the legal saga consumed more than four years of his life, which he said took a toll on him, his family, and friends. 
&#8220;It was a very lonely battle, because this was kind of a low point for President Trump and his supporters,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We were being persecuted, chased around, hounded. President Trump was actually indicted for the first time during the trial. And especially the trial being in Brooklyn, there&#8217;s not a lot of love for Trump supporters. It was a very lonely fight.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_498101" style="width: 594px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-498101" class="wp-image-498101 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/unnamed-1.png" alt="Douglass Mackey" width="584" height="381" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/unnamed-1.png 584w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/unnamed-1-300x196.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px" />Courtesy of James Lawrence</div>
As for his family, Mackey told The Daily Wire his wife was pregnant during the trial and actually had an emergency c-section while he was in New York City being sentenced.
&#8220;It&#8217;s very difficult, especially for my wife,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We got married during the case and had a child because she said, &#8216;Look, we can&#8217;t wait forever, who knows how long this thing&#8217;s gonna go on for?&#8217; That was a blessing, but very, very difficult as you can imagine. &#8230; My wife had to do an emergency c-section while I was in New York getting sentenced for this case in 2023.&#8221;
&#8220;My family and friends, a lot of them stuck around and really were very strong supporters,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But as you can imagine, a lot of people when you get arrested and this is all over the news, they&#8217;re thinking, well, there must be some great crime here. But once everybody actually looked at the facts of the case &#8212; it didn&#8217;t matter if they liked Donald Trump or not — they realized that this case was complete nonsense. So it sort of was lonely at first, then everybody rallied around — we had a good fighting spirit.&#8221;
Mackey expressed tremendous gratitude for his supporters and noted that they were able to raise over seven figures for legal fees, but added, &#8220;we owe a lot of money still, too.&#8221;
Mackey also explained that every penny of the fundraised money was spent on legal fees, since he was fortunately self-employed and able to support his family during the legal battle. That reality is not always the case for individuals who&#8217;ve been demonized in the media.
The prospects of a good outcome with the lawsuit seem likely. President Donald Trump has cited Mackey&#8217;s case as an example of political persecution, and a White House policy adviser referenced the prosecution when discussing Trump’s executive order to end the weaponization of the federal government. Moreover, the appeals court roundly rejected the government&#8217;s arguments. 
“I didn&#8217;t expect that it would be such a resounding victory,&#8221; Mackey said of the court&#8217;s ruling. &#8220;It&#8217;s extremely rare for a case, number one, to be overturned on appeal. Number two, it&#8217;s extremely rare for the appeals court to actually overrule the jury and say, &#8216;No, the verdict was wrong, you have to enter a judgment of acquittal.&#8217; That&#8217;s extremely rare, and just goes to show how weak and non-existent the government&#8217;s case against me was.”
Mackey ended his interview with The Daily Wire by thanking his supporters, family, and friends. If supporters would like to chip in toward his lawsuit against the government, they can visit <a href="https://www.memedefensefund.com">MemeDefenseFund.com</a>, he said.
Mackey also called attention to other victims of government weaponization and specifically highlighted the work of <a href="https://patriotfreedomproject.com/board-member/cynthia-hughes/">Cynthia Hughes at Patriot Freedom Project</a> for helping such victims.

Douglass Mackey

The Biden DOJ Tried To Imprison A Trump Supporter Over Memes. Now, He’s Fighting Back.

INTERVIEW: Trump Supporter The Biden DOJ Tried To Imprison Over Memes Is Fighting Back

Biden Admin

Donald Trump

Memes

Federal agents are under attack as the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement operations, a Trump supporter targeted by the Biden administration scores a major win for free speech, and the race to develop advanced artificial intelligence is heating up.
It’s Friday, July 11, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="ICE Agents Come Under Fire &amp; Meme-Maker Walks Free" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cnY2qKBbuO0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ice-agents-come-under-fire-meme-maker-walks-free-7-11-25/id1576594336?i=1000716804397" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>Anti-ICE Violence</h2>
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Topline: ICE agents are under attack across the United States as they carry out President Donald Trump&#8217;s deportation agenda. The rise in violence has sparked calls to tone down the rhetoric as political battles rage over immigration.
In Southern California on Thursday, feds conducted immigration raids at two Glass House Farms, a state-licensed marijuana facility that is allegedly employing illegal immigrants, including children. After getting word of the immigration operations at a cannabis farm in Camarillo, approximately 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, around 500 protesters arrived to confront federal authorities. The standoff quickly turned violent as federal agents attempted to disperse the crowd with smoke canisters, and news helicopter video captured the moment when one man appeared to fire a handgun at authorities.
This week, at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, a group of people clad in black, military-style clothes used fireworks to lure out ICE officers while a gunman waited in the woods. One ICE agent was shot in the neck. He’s thankfully expected to recover. Ten people linked to the attack have been <a href="https://x.com/RochelleAz/status/1942950921719394470">charged</a> with attempted murder.  
In Oregon, three more people are facing charges after they allegedly assaulted officers at an ICE facility in Portland. The officers were kicked, punched, and attacked with an &#8220;incendiary device.” In McAllen, Texas, two police officers and a Border Patrol agent were hospitalized after a gunman fired dozens of rounds into a Border Patrol facility. And also this week in San Francisco, anti-ICE protesters attacked ICE agents in an apparent attempt to stop their black van from leaving the area.
“The attack on ICE officers, you&#8217;ve covered it many times, is up nearly 700 percent now,” Border Czar Tom Homan <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=535014">told</a> Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer. “The rhetoric against the men and women of ICE is skyrocketing, especially by members of Congress. We have senators, we have congresspeople that compare ICE to the Nazis, compare ICE to racists, and it just continues. So the public thinks, well, if a member of Congress can attack ICE, why can&#8217;t we?&#8221;
“Donald Trump&#8217;s modern day is scooping folks up off the streets,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz <a href="https://x.com/AlphaNewsMN/status/1923906506472243685">said</a>. “They&#8217;re in unmarked vans wearing masks being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”
Some say this radical rhetoric is actually part of a larger strategy by the Democrats to provoke ICE and cut down support for Trump’s most popular issue. 
“What they’re betting, and if you believe that, the idea of trying to provoke an overreaction on the part of ICE is part of the strategy,” RealClearPolitics Chief Content Officer Andrew Walworth <a href="https://youtu.be/bZghs7pNFf4?t=383">said</a>.
The attacks may be having an effect — Trump’s overall approval on immigration appears to be <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval_immigration-8659.html">falling</a>.
&nbsp;
<h2>Doug Mackey</h2>
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Topline: A Trump supporter who was targeted by the Biden DOJ over memes he posted online had his case tossed by an appeals court, scoring a major victory for free speech. 
Douglass Mackey had a popular pro-Trump account on Twitter, now called X, during the 2016 election. He went by the alias Ricky Vaughn, inspired by Charlie Sheen’s character in Major League. Just days after Joe Biden took office in 2021, Mackey was arrested and he was prosecuted by the Justice Department over memes he posted four years prior. One of the memes in question mocked Hillary Clinton supporters and said they could text their vote and avoid the polls. Similar jokes were made online about Trump supporters. 
The DOJ claimed this was a mass conspiracy, voter suppression, and election interference. Mackey was facing 10 years in prison. He was eventually convicted in NYC and sentenced to seven months behind bars. He was able to avoid serving jail time as he appealed the case, and on Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed Mackey’s conviction and directed a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal.
“I didn&#8217;t expect that it would be such a resounding victory,” Mackey told The Daily Wire. “It&#8217;s extremely rare for a case, number one, to be overturned on appeal. Number two, it&#8217;s extremely rare for the Circuit court, the appeals court, to actually overrule the jury and say, no, the verdict was wrong, you have to enter a judgment of acquittal. [It] just goes to show how weak and non-existent the government&#8217;s case against me was.”
Though Mackey was ultimately acquitted, this legal saga was more than four years of his life, which really took a toll on his family and friends. Mackey told The Daily Wire his wife was pregnant during the trial and she actually had an emergency C-section while Mackey was in New York being sentenced. On the financial side, Mackey said his legal fees totaled north of a million dollars. Moving forward, Mackey plans to file a civil lawsuit against the DOJ. 
“As the Circuit Court ruled, this case was brought without sufficient evidence,” Mackey said. “So based on that, we have to assume that they brought this case for political reasons, because why else would you bring this case? So I think it&#8217;s egregious. I think that it&#8217;s weaponization and politicized justice and I think it&#8217;s misconduct.”
&nbsp;
<h2>AI Arms Race </h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-945715" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/MRN-7.11.25-Seg-Head-3.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The race to develop advanced artificial intelligence is heating up, and some tech giants are sparing no expense. Earlier this week, Meta paid $200 million to poach one of Apple’s leading AI developers for its new &#8220;Superintelligence Lab.&#8221; Meanwhile, deep fakes are becoming a major security issue.
Investment in artificial intelligence has been growing exponentially in the last decade. According to an <a href="https://edgedelta.com/company/blog/ai-investment-statistics">analysis</a> by Stanford University, nearly a trillion dollars was poured into developing tools like ChatGPT between 2013 and 2022. Many of these AI tools have been wildly successful and have been incorporated into all parts of our daily lives: individualized search and chat tools, big data analysis that quickly sequence genomes and help doctors diagnose diseases, large language models that can quickly and accurately translate text and audio into different languages &#8211; the list goes on. In 2025, global investment in AI is expected to reach $200 billion per year.
Despite overseas efforts to catch up, U.S. companies currently lead the field. There are some prominent newcomers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, but all of the Big Tech names that most people would recognize, like Amazon, Nvidia, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple have invested heavily in artificial intelligence. 
Apple’s AI offerings have generally underperformed relative to its competitors — there are rumors that they might outsource the integration of LLM features into Siri to other firms. However, Apple has a lot of experience building smartphones and personal computers, and much of their research has been focused on making smaller AI models that could be built into their hardware instead of relying on a connection to external servers. 
Those efforts appear to have caught Mark Zuckerberg’s attention, and he is reportedly now trying to poach their top talent with very lucrative contracts. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Ruoming Pang, the head developer of Apple’s AI models, was leaving the company to join Meta for a cool <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/07/meta-reportedly-recruits-apples-head-of-ai-models/">$200 million</a>. According to industry scuttlebutt, he may be just the first of many to jump ship from Apple  – Sam Altman of OpenAI says his employees have received similar offers.
“[Meta] started making these giant offers to people on our team,” Altman <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZUG0pr5hBo">said</a>. “100 million dollar signing bonuses… so far none of my top employees have decided to take them up on it.”
Meanwhile: In May, “unknown actors” got ahold of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ contact list and posed as her to contact senators, congressmen, and prominent businessmen. That same month, the FBI issued a PSA warning that “if you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic.”
A similar scheme was attempted in June; a cable from the State Department revealed that at least five people received text and voice messages imitating Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The Rubio impersonator created a Signal account using an official-sounding email address as his display name and reached out to at least five people, including members of Congress and foreign dignitaries. An investigation is ongoing in both cases. However, because of how ubiquitous AI voice cloning has become, it could be hard to pin down a suspect.
“Deep fake audio is extremely simple to produce,” Leah Siskind, an AI Research Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, told The Daily Wire. “Typically it only requires about 30 seconds of recorded audio and you can use tools that are online, that are free, that are extremely user friendly. You don’t need much technical knowledge to learn how to produce these audio fakes, and what they’ll do is they’ll use AI to train to train on, they’ll look for patterns in your accent, your tone, your pitch, your breathing patterns, all within that 30 second audio clip, and from that they’ll be able to produce a very realistic mimic of your voice.”

MRN 7.11.25 Thumbnail V1

Morning Brief: Anti-ICE Violence, Meme Madness, And What’s Next In The AI Arms Race

Artificial Intelligence

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Media

Morning Wire

Politics

The man behind a popular pro-Trump X account effectively had his conviction tossed on Wednesday, after the Biden-era <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-justice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Justice</a> was ready to imprison him for memes that mocked Hillary Clinton voters during the 2016 presidential election.
Douglass Mackey, who was charged by the Biden DOJ some four years after posting the memes in question, was facing a stunning 10 years behind bars. After the DOJ secured a conviction, Mackey was sentenced to seven months behind bars in 2023, but the sentence was delayed by an appeals court.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit reversed Mackey’s conviction and directed a lower court to enter a judgment of acquittal.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
DOUG MACKEY WINS !! MEME MAGIC HAS EMERGED COMPLETELY VICTORIOUS !! <a href="https://t.co/hyJFw5rQxe">pic.twitter.com/hyJFw5rQxe</a>
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1942949310380880156?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out my conviction for lack of evidence the case has been remanded to the district court with orders to immediately dismiss,&#8221; Mackey posted to X. &#8220;Hallelujah!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: THE SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS HAS THROWN OUT MY CONVICTION FOR LACK OF EVIDENCE
THE CASE HAS BEEN REMANDED TO THE DISTRICT COURT WITH ORDERS TO IMMEDIATELY DISMISS
HALLELUJAH!
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1942947069745934603?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
As reported by The Daily Wire, Mackey, who went by the Twitter (now X) alias Ricky Vaughn, was charged about a week after President Joe Biden took office — some four years after the memes were posted. While the DOJ claimed Mackey conspired to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” people from exercising their constitutional right to vote, his legal team, other legal minds, and many politicos said the memes were obviously protected free speech.
The meme the prosecution zeroed in on was published on November 1, 2016. It shows a woman holding an “African Americans for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hillary-clinton-lands-professor-and-presidential-fellow-gig-at-columbia-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">President Hillary</a>” sign with overlaid text reading, “Avoid the line. Vote from home. Text ‘Hillary’ to 55925.”
<div id="attachment_945037" style="width: 528px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-945037" class="wp-image-945037 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-7.45.11-PM-518x576.png" alt="" width="518" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-7.45.11-PM-518x576.png 518w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-7.45.11-PM-270x300.png 270w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-7.45.11-PM-768x855.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-7.45.11-PM.png 1170w" sizes="(max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px" />Screenshot: Twitter</div>
Mackey has the support of President Donald Trump, and others in his orbit, including Donald Trump Jr., but said after Trump won the 2024 election that he would not ask Trump for a pardon, since he was anticipating a good result on appeal.
“Since so many are asking, my team and I have not asked President Trump for a pardon at this time as we are hoping for a favorable, precedent-setting ruling in the 2nd Circuit that would prevent the DOJ from politically weaponizing the law,” he said at the time. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Since so many are asking, my team and I have not asked President Trump for a pardon at this time as we are hoping for a favorable, precedent-setting ruling in the 2nd Circuit that would prevent the DOJ from politically weaponizing the law.
Thank you everybody for your support!
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1881538008698204562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
Mackey also posted on X, &#8220;Now we sue,&#8221; suggesting a coming suit against the federal government.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Now we sue
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1942947698631442630?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-doj-trying-to-lock-up-a-pro-trump-meme-maker-for-ten-years-heres-what-you-need-to-know" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden DOJ Trying To Lock Up A Pro-Trump Meme Maker For Ten Years. Here’s What You Need To Know.</a>

Trump Supporter Gets Case Tossed After Biden DOJ Was Ready To Imprison Him For Memes

Trump Supporter Just Got Case Tossed After Biden DOJ Was Ready To Imprison Him For Memes

Department of Justice

Hillary Clinton

A federal court on Monday halted the prison sentence for Douglas Mackey, who was convicted earlier this year of election interference for posting memes that <a href="https://www.memedefensefund.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mocked</a> Hillary Clinton voters to cast their ballot via text during the 2016 presidential election.
Mackey was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-supporter-douglass-mackey-sentenced-to-7-months-in-prison-over-voting-memes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of a &#8220;scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote&#8221; after a Twitter account he ran under the handle &#8220;Ricky Vaughn&#8221; posted memes in the lead-up to the election. In October, Judge Ann M. Donnelly of Federal District Court in Brooklyn sentenced Mackey to 7 months in prison, a $15,000 fine, and two years probation.
However, Judge Omar Williams of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reportedly overruled the appellate court in granting a motion for bond pending appeal, according to Mackey.
&#8220;This ruling is huge because it means that the appeals court decided that my appeal presents &#8216;substantial&#8217; and &#8216;debatable&#8217; issues of law that, if resolved in my favor, will result in my conviction being vacated,&#8221; Mackey <a href="https://twitter.com/DougMackeyCase/status/1731775057184100848" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X. &#8220;The prosecution, on the other hand, argued that my appeal was frivolous and that this was a typical election crime case like any other in U.S. history. This is a very encouraging step towards vindication.&#8221;
Mackey was charged one week after President Joe Biden assumed office and roughly four years after the 2016 election. The Justice Department claimed that Mackey had conspired to &#8220;injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate&#8221; people from exercising their right to vote. Prosecutors said that he and others had &#8220;intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election&#8221; with their posts.
The Justice Department said that Mackey had worked with other influential Twitter users between September 2016 and November 2016 to &#8220;disseminate fraudulent messages&#8221; which persuaded voters for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to cast their ballots via phone or social media.
One image showed a black woman standing in front of an &#8220;African Americans for Hillary&#8221; sign and said, &#8220;Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,&#8221; and &#8220;Text &#8216;Hillary&#8217; to 59925.&#8221;
According to the government, some 4,900 people texted the number, but it&#8217;s unclear how many people, if anyone, fell for the meme and did not cast the vote they intended to cast; or were merely participating in the joke.
Hillary Clinton <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-prison-sentence-of-douglass-mackey-stayed-by-federal-court-pending-appeal?utm_campaign=64506" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> celebrated the arrest, saying Mackey&#8217;s meme went &#8220;from what you would consider free speech &#8230; to running a very deliberate effort to mislead people about where and how to vote. So it went from speech to action meant to subvert the election because thousands of people who they targeted through their algorithms, &#8216;oh I could text my vote for Hillary Clinton.'&#8221;
Mackey said if he loses the appeal in the Second Circuit, he intends to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.

Douglas Mackey’s Meme-Related Prison Sentence Halted By Federal Court

Douglas Mackey's Meme-Related Prison Sentence Halted By Federal Court

2016 Election

Twitter erupted Sunday afternoon after left-wing comedian Kathy Griffin was suspended for violating the platform&#8217;s terms of service about impersonating other people.
New Twitter CEO Elon Musk warned that moving forward, accounts would be permanently banned without warning if they attempted to impersonate other accounts.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted. “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning.”
“This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue,” Musk continued. “Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.”
Griffin’s account was banned after she impersonated Musk by changing her profile photo to his photo and her user name to “Elon Musk,” even though her handle remained “@kathygriffin.”
Memes quickly flooded the internet mocking Griffin, 62, with many using her highly controversial photo shoot when she held a fake, severed head of then-President Donald Trump for the camera.
Conservative actor James Woods posted a meme to Twitter showing Musk holding Griffin&#8217;s head.
&#8220;In context maybe the greatest meme ever,&#8221; Woods tweeted.
https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1589482286520889344
Other notable memes and reactions included:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Someone needs to photoshop this with Elon and Kathy Griffin. <a href="https://t.co/oieCTVv0ac">pic.twitter.com/oieCTVv0ac</a>
&mdash; James Morrow (@pwafork) <a href="https://twitter.com/pwafork/status/1589547466160209920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Got em! <a href="https://t.co/WBn0vYVxYb">pic.twitter.com/WBn0vYVxYb</a>
&mdash; Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1589458915301130241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I must admit, I never thought Kathy Griffin would be the cause that finally rallied the Twitter elite back to the cause of free speech. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/freekathygriffin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#freekathygriffin</a>
&mdash; David Sacks (@DavidSacks) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1589483800723353602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
 <a href="https://t.co/cN4aU0Ho3b">pic.twitter.com/cN4aU0Ho3b</a>
&mdash; Mostly Peaceful Memes (@MostlyPeacefull) <a href="https://twitter.com/MostlyPeacefull/status/1589441499556896768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://t.co/KMiUPq4A8O">pic.twitter.com/KMiUPq4A8O</a>
&mdash; The Right To Bear Memes (@grandoldmemes) <a href="https://twitter.com/grandoldmemes/status/1589436724706353152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk responded to a Twitter account posting the news that Griffin was banned for impersonating him by first taking a swipe at her and then saying he would let her back on the platform.
“Actually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian,” Musk tweeted. “But if she really wants her account back, she can have it.”
Musk later added that she would have to pay the $8 fee to use the new Twitter Blue.
Musk also claimed that banning accounts for impersonation does not go against his views on free speech. “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk tweeted.
Twitter has explicit rules prohibiting the impersonation of other people. “You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations to mislead, confuse, or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on Twitter,” the company’s terms of service <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-impersonation-and-deceptive-identities-policy#:~:text=While%20you%20are%20not%20required,in%20order%20to%20deceive%20others.">says</a>.
The company does make exceptions for parody accounts, but the accounts have to clearly state that they are parodies.
“If we determine a profile features another’s image, we will also evaluate the context in which the image is used,” the terms of service state. “We are most likely to take action if an account falsely claims to be the entity portrayed in the profile photo, as with impersonation or fake accounts.”

Mea Culpa Live With Michael Cohen

‘Maybe The Greatest Meme Ever’: James Woods, Others Mock Kathy Griffin For Getting Banned On Twitter

James Woods, Others Mock Kathy Griffin For Getting Banned On Twitter

Celebrities

Elon Musk

James Woods

Kathy Griffin

Twitter

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Chloë Grace Moretz</a> is still not over being the subject of a meme, claiming the experience has had lasting impacts on her mental health and even her Hollywood career.
The 25-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">actress</a> addressed the joke once again while speaking with <a href="https://www.etonline.com/chloe-grace-moretz-on-what-she-hopes-fans-took-away-from-her-addressing-family-guy-meme-exclusive">Entertainment Tonight</a> during a red-carpet appearance this week. 
“I think the big thing is that compassion is a really key thing in humanity and just being kind with the words that you say with one another, the things you say online,” she said at the premiere of her Amazon sci-fi series “The Peripheral.”
“I think compassion is key and I hope that the world can have a little bit more of that.”
Moretz is still affected by a photoshopped image of her that went viral. It shows the actress wearing shorts and carrying a pizza, but someone altered the original to shorten Moretz’s torso and lengthen her legs. This drew comparisons to a “Family Guy” character named Legs Go All The Way Up Griffin from the episode “Amish Guy.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Chloë Grace Moretz: I suffered body dysmorphia after &#39;Family Guy&#39; meme <a href="https://t.co/R2C5p1nPrC">https://t.co/R2C5p1nPrC</a> <a href="https://t.co/4y2ouM2L72">pic.twitter.com/4y2ouM2L72</a>
&mdash; New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1575221574009065473?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The “Kick Ass” star previously revealed how the meme emotionally scarred her during an <a href="https://www.hungertv.com/editorial/chloe-grace-moretz-on-fame-and-social-media-i-basically-became-a-recluse/">interview</a> with Hunger magazine in September.
“I’ve actually never really talked about this, but there was one meme that really affected me, of me walking into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand. And this photo got manipulated into a character from Family Guy with the long legs and the short torso, and it was one of the most widespread memes at the time,” she recalled.
“Everyone was making fun of my body and I brought it up with someone and they were like, ‘Oh, shut the f*** up, it’s funny.’ And I just remember sitting there and thinking, my body is being used as a joke and it’s something that I can’t change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram.”
Moretz said that even now, seeing the meme is “very hard for me to overcome” and that she “became a recluse” and had anxiety over getting photographed after that happened.

The Museum Of Modern Art Film Benefit Presented By CHANEL: A Tribute To Martin Scorsese – Arrivals

‘Compassion Is Key’: Actress Still Upset About ‘Family Guy’ Meme She Says Caused Anxiety, Body Dysmorphia

Actress Still Upset About 'Family Guy' Meme She Says Caused Anxiety, Body Dysmorphia

Entertainment

Family Guy

Hollywood

Dr. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mehmet-oz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mehmet Oz&#8217;s</a> Senate campaign fired back at Democratic nominee John Fetterman for criticizing his &#8220;crudité&#8221; gaffe.
Fetterman has been criticizing Oz in recent days after he resurfaced a social media video of the Republican candidate complaining about inflation at a grocery store. The video, in which Oz appears to confuse the name of a popular Pennsylvania grocery store chain, has led to social media users mocking Oz as out-of-touch. But on Monday, the Oz campaign fired back fiercely at Fetterman, including a reference to the stroke he suffered in May that has kept him mostly off the campaign trail.
&#8220;If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn&#8217;t have had a major stroke and wouldn&#8217;t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly,&#8221; Oz campaign Senior Communications Adviser Rachel Tripp told <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oz-on-fetterman-if-hed-eaten-vegetable-wouldnt-have-stroke-2022-8">Business Insider</a> Tuesday.
Dr. Oz originally posted the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@dr_oz/video/7084047614848552234?is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v1&amp;lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> to his official TikTok account in April. In the video, Oz is grocery shopping at Redner&#8217;s, a popular grocery store chain in southeastern Pennsylvania, making note of the high costs of vegetables in the produce section. “Thought I’d do some grocery shopping. I’m at Wegners, and my wife wants some vegetables for a crudité,” Oz says, apparently confusing Redner&#8217;s with Wegman&#8217;s, another grocery store chain with locations throughout the mid-Atlantic, including Pennsylvania.
Fetterman <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnFetterman/status/1559207673698127872?s=20&amp;t=aQNf5cdB8lgiTDVq52KWYA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> the video last week, mocking Oz for using the French word &#8220;crudité&#8221; instead of the more colloquial term &#8220;veggie tray.&#8221; Oz defended his word choice in an interview with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7yFLY5iCYs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox Business</a> Tuesday. &#8220;Whether I pick words that are not conventional ones are irrelevant to the bigger challenges that we&#8217;re facing in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,&#8221; Oz said.
For his part, Fetterman actually lost over 140 pounds, going from weighing 418 pounds to just over 270, between 2017 and 2018, by altering his dietary habits and walking several miles a day, <a href="https://archive.triblive.com/news/health-now/john-fetterman-adopts-new-way-of-eating-drops-148-pounds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TribLive.com</a> reported.
The Pennsylvania Senate campaign has devolved into a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pennsylvanias-senate-campaign-degrades-to-a-meme-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meme war</a>, with the two candidates firing volleys at each other on Twitter and over the airwaves in TV advertisements, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ben Zeisloft reported earlier this month.
Fetterman has done much of his campaigning over social media and TV, focusing on the fact that until recently, Oz&#8217;s primary residence was his home in New Jersey. Fetterman made his first public appearance since suffering a stroke at a rally in Erie on August 12; he gave an 11-minute speech, in which he <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1559000551576244226" target="_blank" rel="noopener">repeatedly stopped</a> abruptly before continuing. Fetterman gave another speech at a rally in Pittsburgh Tuesday; the speech reportedly lasted for less than five minutes, and Fetterman again <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1562181700305788928" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struggled</a> through his remarks.
Oz has also taken to social media and the airwaves to criticize Fetterman over reports that he received a five-figure <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pennsylvania-senate-nominee-fettermans-parents-gave-him-allowance-as-high-as-five-figures-well-into-his-40s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allowance</a> from his parents until he was in his 40s; Oz has also repeatedly and vigorously criticized Fetterman&#8217;s absence from the public eye, including his refusal to agree to televised <a href="https://twitter.com/DrOz/status/1562131927813001217?s=20&amp;t=XfsHk-7H_nbT1sEkWmtYmQ">debates</a> against him. Meanwhile, Oz has been very active on the <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/insight/2022/08/14/mehmet-oz-pennsylvania-senate-campaign/stories/202208140031" target="_blank" rel="noopener">campaign trail</a>, attending multiple campaign events a day all across Pennsylvania.
According to the most recent polling, Oz trails, but is within striking distance of Fetterman. A poll of more than 1,000 likely general election voters, conducted by <a href="https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/TRF-PA-General-0820-Poll-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Trafalgar Group</a>, found that Fetterman leads Oz by less than five points, 48.4% to 43.5%

Republican Senate Candidate Dr. Oz Holds Election Night Party In Pennsylvania

Dr. Oz Campaign Issues Fierce Rebuke Of Fetterman Over ‘Crudité’ Gaffe

Dr. Oz Campaign Issues Fierce Rebuke Of Fetterman Over 'Crudité' Gaffe

2022 Midterms

Dr. Oz

Pennsylvania

U.S. Senate

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/colleges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">student</a> at the University of Southern California reportedly earned $110 million on Tuesday by selling his <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/stock-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shares</a> in Bed Bath &amp; Beyond at the height of a <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/memes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meme</a> stock craze.
The stock price of Bed Bath &amp; Beyond <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bed-bath-beyond-stock-soars-300-wall-street-loses-millions-thanks-to-meme-traders">soared</a> from $4.96 to $27.21 between July 18 and noon on August 16, reflecting a nearly 449% increase in less than a month as traders on social media coordinated to buy shares. Before the price began to decrease, Jake Freeman — an applied mathematics and economics major — dumped the entirety of his stake, netting $110 million.
“The significant appreciation of BBBY&#8217;s share price combined with the fact that I am leaving for school tomorrow played critical roles in closing the Position,” he wrote on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BBBY/comments/wq4lu1/an_ode_to_bbby/">Reddit</a>.
Freeman purchased 5 million shares at $5.50 each last month using $25 million he raised from friends and family, according to <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/08/18/jake-freeman-usc-student-netted-110-million-dollars-in-bed-bath-beyond-stock-dump/">Fortune</a>, earning himself a 6.2% passive stake in the company. He made the purchase after a dismal first-quarter report showing the home goods retailer’s sales had plunged 25%, even as the company maintained $3.3 billion in debt and a mere $107 million in cash on its balance sheet.
“I feel that my acquisition of the Position was a watershed moment for BBBY, and I hope that in one form or another BBBY is able to capitalize off of this increased price to realign their balance sheet and operate for decades to come,” he added on Reddit. “I am truly going to miss being able to say ‘I am the second largest non-institutional shareholder of Bed Bath &amp; Beyond,’ but I am certainly going to be shopping at BBBY tomorrow.”
Freeman celebrated his successful investment by going out to eat with his parents in the New York City suburb where they live. “I certainly did not expect such a vicious rally upwards,” Freeman said in an interview with <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1b21bb08-6590-49c6-8baa-5ad8c527fbcc">Financial Times</a>. “I thought this was going to be a six-months-plus play &#8230; I was really shocked that it went up so fast.”
While Freeman emerged victorious from the Bed Bath &amp; Beyond fiasco, many institutional investors endured heavy paper losses. Investors with short positions lost $662 million on paper over the past month, including a $218 million hit on Tuesday, data analytics firm S3 Partners told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-16/bed-bath-beyond-s-510-surge-defies-wall-street-naysayers">Bloomberg</a>. Short sellers effectively <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszj1flDxl0">bet against</a> companies by borrowing shares, selling them on the stock market, and buying back the shares at a later date to return to the original owners — a strategy that results in a profit if the stock price declines.
The surge in Bed Bath &amp; Beyond stock occurs over a year after traders coordinating their efforts online agreed to purchase stock in GameStop and AMC, as well as cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin. Investors shorting GameStop <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloodbath-hedge-fund-short-sale-losses-top-1-billion-following-gamestop-stock-surge">marked</a> losses of over $70 billion, with hedge fund Melvin Capital losing 53% of its value in the wake of the meme trading surge.
Celebrity business magnates, including Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, publicly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-4-business-moguls-cheering-for-the-little-guys-in-the-gamestop-fiasco">lauded</a> the meme trading. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk likewise told traders to give “no respect” to “shorty apologists.”
“Old days where a hedge fund manager could quietly short a stock, then publish negative research and take a bullhorn to it in the media are over,” Canadian entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary said of the trend last year. “They now run the risk that the power of the crowd will turn on them and squeeze their heads like a teenage pimple.”

Bed Bath & Beyond

College Student Walks Away With $110 Million After Latest Meme Stock Craze

College Student Earns $110 Million In Latest Meme Stock Craze

Money

Stock Market

Shares of Bed Bath &amp; Beyond have soared as <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/memes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meme </a><a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/stock-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stock</a> traders seek to pressure investors betting against the home goods retailer.
The stock price of Bed Bath &amp; Beyond increased from $4.96 to $19.49 between July 18 and August 16, reflecting a nearly 300% increase in less than a month. Shares rose over 21% on Tuesday alone.
The surge in price is bad news for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszj1flDxl0">short sellers</a>, who are effectively betting against the company by borrowing shares, selling them on the stock market, and returning the shares to the original owners at a later date — a strategy that results in a profit if the stock price declines. Investors with short positions lost $662 million on paper over the past month, including a $218 million hit on Tuesday, data analytics firm S3 Partners told <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-16/bed-bath-beyond-s-510-surge-defies-wall-street-naysayers">Bloomberg</a>.
Meme stocks GameStop and AMC Entertainment also rose Tuesday, with the former rising 6.2% and the latter rising 1.6%. Indeed, the surge in Bed Bath &amp; Beyond stock occurs over a year after traders communicating via online social networks collectively agreed to purchase stock in GameStop and AMC, as well as cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin. Investors shorting GameStop <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloodbath-hedge-fund-short-sale-losses-top-1-billion-following-gamestop-stock-surge">marked</a> losses over $70 billion, with hedge fund Melvin Capital losing 53% of its value in the wake of the meme trading surge.
Business magnates — including Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban — publicly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-4-business-moguls-cheering-for-the-little-guys-in-the-gamestop-fiasco">endorsed</a> the meme trading. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk likewise told traders to give “no respect” to “shorty apologists.”
“Old days where a hedge fund manager could quietly short a stock, then publish negative research and take a bullhorn to it in the media are over,” Canadian entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary said of the meme stock trend last year. “They now run the risk that the power of the crowd will turn on them and squeeze their heads like a teenage pimple.”
Some lawmakers, however, were not impressed. In a <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/new-this-am-warren-calls-on-the-sec-to-address-stock-market-gamesmanship-amid-volatile-gamestop-trades">letter</a> to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) argued that the agency ought to regulate meme stock trading.
&#8220;The Commission must review recent market activity affecting GameStop and other companies, and act to ensure that markets reflect real value, rather than the highly leveraged bets of wealthy traders or those who seek to inflict financial damage on those traders,&#8221; Warren wrote. &#8220;To protect and restore public trust in sound securities regulation and enforcement, the Commission must identify gaps in existing securities laws and rules and ways in which the Commission can improve its enforcement capabilities.&#8221;
Nevertheless, a <a href="https://www.sec.gov/files/staff-report-equity-options-market-struction-conditions-early-2021.pdf">staff report</a> published months later by the SEC generally rejected calls to regulate meme stocks. “Underneath the memes are actual companies, with employees, customers, and plans to invest in the future. Those who bought GameStop became co-owners of a company through a system of mutual trust and participation that sustains our economy,” the report explained. “People may disagree about the prospects of GameStop and the other meme stocks, but those disagreements are what should lead to price discovery rather than disruptions.”
More broadly, the stock market has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloodbath-on-wall-street-as-stock-market-plunges-into-bear-territory">declined</a> over 10% since the beginning of 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, rising inflation, and persistent supply chain issues.

Bed Bath & Beyond Stock Soars 300%, Wall Street Loses Millions Thanks To Meme Traders

Meme Stock Traders Latch Onto A New Target

Economy

Tesla and SpaceX CEO <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> poked <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/memes">fun</a> at his fellow Americans on Thursday for allowing the Internal Revenue Service (<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/irs">IRS</a>) to more than double in size.
Musk posted a meme depicting a laughing British redcoat, along with the caption: “when the country that revolted over taxes hires 87,000 new IRS agents.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Fate 🖤 Irony <a href="https://t.co/RHZ9BEws7k">pic.twitter.com/RHZ9BEws7k</a>
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1557759290219171841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk, a South African who lived in Canada before becoming an American citizen, told a user that he already gets “audited every year by default.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
True. I already get audited every year by default.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1557761535979638784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Indeed, top Biden administration officials — including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig — have argued that the 87,000 new employees, who will be hired through an $80 billion carveout from the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act, will focus primarily upon wealthy Americans. The IRS employed nearly 79,000 full-time employees as of fiscal year 2021, according to the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/statistics/irs-budget-and-workforce">agency</a>, which also reported $13.7 billion in operating costs.
“I direct that any additional resources — including any new personnel or auditors that are hired — shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” Yellen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/janet-yellen-vows-irs-audits-wont-rise-for-middle-income-americans-but-theres-a-catch">told</a> Rettig in a Wednesday letter. “This means that, contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited.”
Yellen did not mention, however, that “historical levels” of audits were significantly higher as recently as one decade ago. According to a report from the <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104960.pdf">Government Accountability Office</a>, audit rates for Americans earning between $25,000 to $200,000 fell 76% between 2010 and 2019, while those earning less than $25,000 saw audit rates fall by 61%. Taxpayers earning between $200,000 and $500,000 — representing those at the upper end of the Biden administration’s vow to not raise taxes for those earning less than $400,000 — saw a 92% decline in audits.
The report added that IRS officials “attributed the overall decline in audit rates to decreased funding, and therefore reduced staffing to conduct audits” — constraints which are directly addressed by the Inflation Reduction Act. The agency’s job <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/guns-body-armor-spy-gear-heres-what-bidens-beefed-up-irs-investigation-unit-will-pack">description</a> for new agents says that employees must “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”
Yet Rettig vowed that his agency will “absolutely not” use its new employees to target middle-class Americans and small businesses. Instead, he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irs-we-will-absolutely-not-target-everyday-americans-with-new-army-of-agents">promised</a> that the new funding will create better information technology systems that will help Americans more easily comply with tax laws.
For his part, Musk has repeatedly warned about the dangers of unsustainable fiscal habits. “True national debt, including unfunded entitlements, is at least $60 trillion — roughly three times the size of the entire US economy,” he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/something-has-got-to-give-elon-musk-issues-dire-warning-about-national-debt">commented</a> on social media earlier this year. “Something has got to give.”
Even as several left-wing lawmakers — such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) — accused Musk of “freeloading off everyone else” and failing to pay his “fair share,” the entrepreneur <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pramila-jayapal-reacts-to-elon-musk-paying-11-billion-in-taxes-by-asking-rich-to-pay-their-fair-share">revealed</a> that he paid $11 billion in taxes last year.
“And if you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year,” Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-will-pay-more-taxes-than-any-american-in-history-this-year-elon-musk-obliterates-elizabeth-warren-with-one-tweet">retorted</a>. “Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already.”

Tesla Gigafactory – Elon Musk

Elon Musk Weighs In On IRS Preparing To Hire Army Of Agents

Elon Musk Is Not Thrilled With IRS' New Army Of Agents

Biden Administration

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Taxes

The next candidate <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a> sends to the Senate may be the one who can prove himself quickest on the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/memes">memes</a>.
Lt. Governor John Fetterman, the commonwealth’s Democratic <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms">nominee</a> for the Senate campaigning against Republican rival <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/dr-oz">Dr. Mehmet Oz</a>, was hospitalized on May 13 — days before the primary election — and has been recovering in the wake of receiving a pacemaker-defibrillator. Though he was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hell-be-fine-pa-democratic-senate-nominee-cleared-by-doctor-to-campaign-after-suffering-a-stroke-days-before-primary">cleared</a> by his cardiologist to campaign in the midterm elections, Fetterman made no significant <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pennsylvania-democrat-john-fetterman-to-end-absence-from-campaign-trail-two-months-after-stroke">public appearances</a> until the end of last month.
Fetterman has instead focused on various social media trolling campaigns against Oz, most of which draw attention to the celebrity cardiologist’s longtime residence in New Jersey — for example, by posting a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/15/entertainment/snooki-cameo-dr-oz-john-fetterman-cec/index.html">cameo</a> from Snooki, a personality from the reality show “Jersey Shore,” and attempting to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-fetterman-petition-dr-oz-new-jersey-hall-of-fame-2022-7">induct</a> Oz into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
The memes, however, have been slung in the other direction as well. Following a report indicating that Fetterman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pennsylvania-senate-nominee-fettermans-parents-gave-him-allowance-as-high-as-five-figures-well-into-his-40s">received</a> five-figure allowances from his parents during his tenure as the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, the Oz campaign launched a <a href="https://fraudsterfetterman.com/">promotional website</a> called “Basement Bum Fetterman” — complete with an image depicting the candidate as shirtless and overweight, as well as a clarification that the page was “Not Paid For By John Fetterman’s Daddy.”
Pennsylvania’s voters, according to polls, appear to be favoring Fetterman thus far, with <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/2022/pennsylvania/">FiveThirtyEight</a> showing the Democrat with a 10.8% lead as of August 4. One recent SurveyMonkey <a href="https://www.abc27.com/pennsylvania-senate-race/pennsylvania-senate-race-fetterman-leads-oz-in-new-poll/">poll</a> indicated that Fetterman and Oz respectively have 19% and 38% unfavorability ratings, with Fetterman receiving 17% of his support from voters who favored former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The national political equation may be working against Fetterman. One USA Today Network and Suffolk University <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/early-midterm-poll-has-dire-news-for-pennsylvania-republicans">poll</a> showed in June that Pennsylvanians disapprove of President Joe Biden by a 54% to 39% margin, with more than half of the electorate saying that they “want their vote in November to change the direction in which Biden is leading the nation.”
“Voters say they are unhappy with the economy in Pennsylvania and President Biden’s job approval, yet these particular Democrats are threading the needle thus far,” according to Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos.
Likewise, 48% of Pennsylvanians said that their standard of living is worse, while 17% said it is better — a significant reversal from 31% reporting better conditions and 17% reporting worse in 2018. In Pennsylvania, gasoline costs an average of $4.34 per gallon, according to <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">AAA</a>. When President Biden took office, the national average cost of gas was $2.39 per gallon.
Overall, Fetterman is “slightly favored” to win the election, with FiveThirtyEight’s <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/senate/pennsylvania/">predictive model</a> giving the candidate 67% odds.
Fetterman gave his first media interview since May to the <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/07/20/john-fetterman-health-update-stroke-condition-us-senate-campaign-democratic-candidate-dr-mehmet-oz/stories/202207200082">Pittsburgh Post-Gazette</a> last month — emphasizing that although he may “miss a word” or “slur two together” from time to time, he’s “feeling really good” and has “nothing to hide.”
“I would never be in this if we were not absolutely, 100% able to run fully and to win — and we believe that we are,” Fetterman said.
Both candidates are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oz-fetterman-fill-their-war-chests-for-key-senate-race">filling their war chests</a> for one of the nation’s most contentious midterm races. Oz has raised more than $19 million between March 17, 2021, and June 30, 2022, according to <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S2PA00638/?tab=raising#total-receipts">filings</a> with the U.S. Federal Elections Commission. Fetterman has meanwhile raised $11 million between April and June.

Lieutenant Governor & Democratic Senate Candidate John Fetterman Holds Campaign Event

Pennsylvania’s Senate Campaign Degrades To A Meme War

Fetterman And Oz Battle It Out On Social Media

2022 Election

Google Maps users trolled <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> by turning the site of his infamous fall from a bicycle into a landmark.
@OldRowViral, A Twitter account that posts viral videos and memes aimed at a conservative audience, posted a tweet Monday afternoon showing a Google Maps landmark called &#8220;Brandon [F]alls.&#8221; The landmark, located at Gordon&#8217;s Pond State Park in Lewes, Delaware, is at the crossing where Biden fell while riding his bike in June. The name refers to the &#8220;Let&#8217;s Go Brandon&#8221; chant, often used to mock Biden.
&#8220;We did it Joe! Brandon Falls is officially a historical landmark 😂 #bidenin[g],&#8221; @OldRowViral tweeted on Monday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
We did it Joe! Brandon Falls is officially a historical landmark 😂 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bidenin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bidenin</a> <a href="https://t.co/GUCYdis3MA">https://t.co/GUCYdis3MA</a> <a href="https://t.co/z8gUvvhFCq">pic.twitter.com/z8gUvvhFCq</a>
&mdash; Old Row (@OldRowViral) <a href="https://twitter.com/OldRowViral/status/1549075574643105795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a href="https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/07/19/biden-brandon-falls/">Snopes</a> noted Tuesday that Google Maps allows user to create their own public landmarks, meaning the site was created by a user to troll Biden.
The <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/brandon-falls-delaware-landmark-named-biden-bike-fall">Washington Examiner</a> noted that as of Tuesday morning, the landmark had a 4.9-star rating on Google Maps, from more than 200 reviews. “Very nice place to ride a bike,” one of the reviews reads, via Washington Examiner. “Just be careful not to cause too much inflation in your tires or you can end up crashing your whole bike into the ground. But if that happens, just blame Putin. People will ‘fall’ for it!”
“Road was too bumpy, and reminded me of the problems we still face for two more years,&#8221; read another.
As of the publishing of this piece, however, the landmark appears to have been taken down by Google. The location &#8220;Brandon falls, Road 300, Lewes, DE,&#8221; still appears as a recommended search, but the search redirects to a house in a nearby neighborhood.
The Google Maps landmark is just the latest move by internet jokesters and meme-makers to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-roasted-after-falling-off-bicycle-a-perfect-metaphor-for-the-current-state-of-our-country">troll Biden</a> after he fell off his bike in June. Twitter user @Brick_Suit <a href="https://twitter.com/Brick_Suit/status/1545191671838584832">posted</a> a photo to Twitter on July 7 of the bike crossing at Gordon&#8217;s Pond State Park, where someone had written &#8220;Joe Fell Here&#8221; in chalk on the spot where Biden had his fall.
Old Row, a clothing and apparel brand associated with the @OldRowViral Twitter account, is currently selling <a href="https://shop.oldrow.net/products/joe-fell-here-tee?variant=39834978484337">tee shirts</a> with the photo emblazoned on the front. The @OldRowViral also started the hashtag &#8220;#bidening,&#8221; which consists of people posting pictures and videos of themselves falling off their bikes. The account also posted a thread with pictures and videos of people lying down or purposely falling off their bikes at the Gordon&#8217;s Pond bike path.
Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-falls-while-standing-partially-on-ground-after-stopping-bicycle">fell off his bicycle</a> on June 18 while at his home in Rehoboth Beach. While out on a ride with his family at Gordon&#8217;s Pond, Biden crossed the street to talk to a group of people, stopped the bike, put his left foot down, then suddenly fell down. Secret Service agents quickly helped him up to his feet. At the time, Biden said he was &#8220;good,&#8221; and that he had simply gotten his foot caught in the foot cage on one of his bike pedals. A White House spokesman later confirmed that Biden was alright. &#8220;As the President said, his foot got caught on the pedal while dismounting and he is fine,&#8221; the spokesman said at the time, via <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/18/politics/biden-falls-riding-bike/index.html">CNN</a>. &#8220;No medical attention is needed. The President looks forward to spending the rest of the day with his family.&#8221;

Biden falls off bike

Google Maps Users Troll Biden With Mocking Landmark Where He Fell Off Bike

Google Maps Users Troll Biden, Create Landmark At The Spot Where He Fell Off His Bike

Delaware

Google

Joe Biden

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