A Washington Post reporter tried to shut down a GoFundMe fundraiser that’s raising millions of dollars to help build President Donald Trump’s wall along the southern border of the United States.
Tony Romm, who describes himself as a tech policy reporter for the news outlet, said that he saw the fundraiser and noted that the veteran who started it said he had contacts with the Trump administration.
“It got me thinking is that, like, allowed on the site?” Romm wrote on Twitter.
“GoFundMe terms prohibit attempts to raise cash money rooted in ‘intolerance of any kind relating to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, or serious disabilities or diseases,’ among other limits.”
Romm said he contacted GoFundMe to try to shut down the fundraiser, stating: “I asked GoFundMe if this wall fundraiser violates [the terms].”
A spokesperson for GoFundMe told Romm that the campaign does not violate the company’s terms of service.
A number of Twitter users slammed Romm for trying to end the campaign, which has proven immensely popular.
In response, Romm doubled down on his attempts.
“The state of our discourse is such that this thread—which merely explores the funding campaign in the context of the site’s ToS—is a political lightning rod,” he claimed. “Somehow the most boring legalese has turned into a rallying cry for a certain set of users to go on the attack.”
Besides writing for the Post, Romm recently announced he’d be appearing on the MSNBC cable news network.
Border Patrol guards the fence at the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz., on May 23, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)Border Wall Fundraiser
The GoFundMe for the border wall was started by Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran who lost three limbs while deployed in Iraq in 2004 when the air base he was working in was attacked by a rocket.
“The government has accepted large private donations before, most recently a billionaire donated $7.5 Million to fund half of the Washington Monument repairs in 2012; this is no different,” Kolfage wrote.
“Like a majority of those American citizens who voted to elect President Donald J Trump, we voted for him to Make America Great Again. President Trump’s main campaign promise was to BUILD THE WALL. And as he’s followed through on just about every promise so far, this wall project needs to be completed still.”
The fundraiser has garnered $11.5 million in four days, as of 9:40 a.m. EDT Dec. 21.
Kolfage said the violence perpetrated by illegal aliens prompted him to act.
“As a veteran who has given so much, 3 limbs, I feel deeply invested to this nation to ensure future generations have everything we have today. Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society,” he wrote.
He said he was inspired by a New York Post op-ed that questioned why no one had launched a fundraiser for the wall.
“If Congress won’t secure the borders, then it is necessary for the public to step in. It would be a modern and critical twist on the Founders’ ideal of self-government,” wrote Michael Goodwin in the op-ed.
A number of people said in a telephone and online survey recently that they were willing to privately contribute to build the border wall.
Rasmussen Reports said that 34 percent of Republicans said they would contribute, along with 21 percent of independents and 10 percent of Democrats. Of those, 19 percent said they’d be willing to pay an extra $100 a year in taxes, and 19 percent said they’d be willing to pay an extra $300 a year in taxes; 2 percent said they would pay more than $1,000 a year in extra taxes each year to help pay for the wall.
From NTD News
