In an email to his mailing list, Dick Morris encouraged supporters to help “defeat Obama's stimulus package” in part by donating at GOPTrust.com, the website of the National Republican Trust PAC, writing: “As I did during the election, I am working with the National Republican Trust to do what I can to stop this package from passing.” But following questions raised by Media Matters for America about the nature of his relationship with the group, Morris had said in the fall that “all they've done is buy ads on my website, like they buy ads in The New York Times,” and insisted that “I'm no more in cahoots with them than The New York Times is.”
Dick Morris now says he “work[ed] with” National Republican Trust PAC during election
Written by Julie Millican
Published
In a February 3 email to his mailing list, Dick Morris encouraged supporters to help “defeat Obama's stimulus package” in part by donating at GOPTrust.com, the website of the National Republican Trust PAC. In his email, which is also posted on his website, Morris wrote: “As I did during the election, I am working with the National Republican Trust to do what I can to stop this package from passing." But following questions raised by Media Matters for America regarding Morris' financial relationship with the group, in a November 24, 2008, appearance on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Morris had said that “some of the liberals have lashed back at me, claiming that somehow I'm getting paid by this group, but the fact is that all they've done is buy ads on my website, like they buy ads in The New York Times.” Morris insisted, “I'm no more in cahoots with them than The New York Times is.”
From Morris' February 3 email:
As you have probably gathered from my past few columns, I am very critical of the stimulus package proposed by the president. I believe it won't do much to stimulate the economy since consumers will use the checks to pay bills and pay down debts and businesspeople will invest it waiting for better times.
[...]
As I did during the election, I am working with the National Republican Trust to do what I can to stop this package from passing. They will be running ads in key states to build sentiment against it to convert conservative Democrats and stiffen the spine of the Republicans in the Senate. Please help by contributing at GOPTrust.com. If we can modify or defeat this package it will save all of us a great deal of pain and suffering down the road.
As Media Matters documented, between October 27, 2008, and November 17, 2008, Morris mentioned GOPTrust.com during at least 13 Fox News appearances and asked viewers to “give funds to GOPTrust.com.” During that period, Morris also promoted GOPTrust.com in his Creators Syndicate column and columns published in or by the New York Post, The Hill, Newsmax.com, and his personal website, DickMorris.com. But in none of those instances did Morris disclose that the group has paid him thousands of dollars to run its ads. (In some cases, reprints of Morris' columns did appear in his email newsletter along with embedded ads marked as paid for by the National Republican Trust PAC.) A Media Matters analysis of available records filed with the Federal Election Commission found that GOPTrust.com had paid Triangulation Strategies, a firm apparently affiliated with Morris, at least $24,000 between October 10, 2008, and November 19, 2008, mostly for “Email Communication.” Triangulation Strategies received additional payments from GOPTrust.com of $1,500 each on November 20, 2008, and November 25, 2008.