OldManLondre - Former Elected Official, Super PAC director, Dem Party Official, Campaign Manager, Community Organizer, and Consultant - had several questions for Brianna Wu [shown above]... her response was, 'No Comment'

For a long time now, I have considered Brianna Wu to be a friend and admirable political professional.

I have spoken incredibly highly of her in public and private; I have gone to bat for her without her asking, encouraged her privately when she has been routinely attacked in bad faith, and advised her and those around her of concerns I have had about her approach whenever I felt it necessary and helpful.

In recent months, however, my capacity to ignore my own mounting concerns and the concerns of others — even if presented in unfair ways — has worn more and more.

But I wanted to give a friend a shot at straightening the record, so a month ago I presented the following offer to her:

Let’s sit down, I’ll interview you, and I can tell the true story of Brianna Wu: Past, Present, and your view of the future.

My offer was given no response.

I expressed my frustrations and growing concerns to those closest to her, who — to my surprise — expressed in turn that they shared most of my feelings.

They did also try to temper my sentiments by reminding me that Brianna had recently undergone some kind of medical procedure.

I expressed my complete understanding and belief that this was a perfectly reasonable response… to a point.

And in my view, after seeing Brianna spend seemingly unlimited amounts of time over the last month picking fights on social media and appearing on numerous debate panels and podcasts, that “point” was more than crossed.

And while I waited for even the shortest reply in response to my previous message, my overarching view of Brianna began to change — until ultimately, while I was in the hospital recovering from my own medical procedure, something in my mind said, “Instead of doom scrolling in your hospital bed, do something.”

And for whatever reason, the something I felt I should do was to follow up with Brianna.

But as I prepared to and looked at how long it had been since I sent my last message to her, I realized things had changed and so too my approach had to change as well.

So, I opened a Google Doc, wrote down all the questions I had, and sent them off to her.

Unlike last time, she started to respond almost instantaneously. But, as I predicted, she didn’t respond to my direct questions with direct answers, she responded first by making excuses, and then — frankly — by trying to jerk me around, as she had done to me before.

This time, I wasn’t having it.

Tuesday - July 2, 2024

As you can see, to my great disappointment (but not to my surprise) she refused to answer my questions.

Instead of answering straightforward questions with straightforward answers, she gave a hyper PR-brained response (and that’s about as charitably as I can put it).

My personal and professional disappointment in this response is hard to put into words without sounding stupendously melodramatic.

Nevertheless, here — I thought — is someone who wants to be seen as an international political influencer, who is more than willing to answer endless questions about what she was doing a decade ago (see: Gamergate), but who recoils today at pointed questions about what she is doing right now, about the role she has used more than any other to bolster her claim of being the experienced voice in the room (Rebellion PAC, Executive Director).

Yet, when given the chance to defend that work from the friendliest of voices who could ask these obvious questions, she clams up.

But rather than editorializing any further or making a video about this, I have decided to simply publish here the questions I asked Brianna and that she refused to answer, in hopes that someone else may have better luck.

Hello, Brianna.

About a month ago, I sent you a message about doing a YouTube video about you but never heard back.

I know you were recovering from some kind of medical procedure around then and are a very busy person.

However, I'd be lying if I said it hasn't rubbed me the wrong way to not hear back from you for this long considering how friendly we have been for so long and how often I have come to your defense, and frankly, how much time you obviously spend on social media - it feels hard not to see that as being plainly ignored by a “friend.”

That being said, as I have spent more time looking into Progressive Victory and reporting what I have found from the perspective of someone who knows the world of federal PACs etc better than 99% of the people talking about PV (always with the aim of 1. Getting the facts, 2. Sharing the facts without fear or favor, and 3. Share them in a way that depersonalizes everything as much as possible, with the end goal of facilitating a more educated public discourse around these organizations) I kept seeing your name and Rebellion PAC pop up.

So, at this point I'm less interested in making the kind of video I originally presented, and instead I would like to make a fact-focused video about Rebellion PAC.

Below are a series of questions I hope you will be willing to answer. I plan to release a video about this over the weekend or early next week. It’s certainly up to you if you want to answer these questions or not, but in full transparency, if you choose not to I will simply release the video and the questions and present the fact of not being given an answer. I hope that doesn’t strike you as harsh but instead as fair - and I want to be fully honest with you about how I plan to go about this.

QUESTIONS - please answer as honestly and in as much detail as possible

TOPIC 1: PROGRESSIVE VICTORY

• How long did you work for them?
• Their wiki shows you worked as “Senior Project Strategist” — What does that mean? What did you do in that role?
• Were you working for / paid for by PV’s Hybrid PAC or their 501c4? Or both?
• There seem to be varied stories about why you stopped working for them, why did that relationship end?

TOPIC 2: REBELLION PAC & REBELLION POLICY INSTITUTE - THE WORK

• Both Rebellion PAC and Rebellion Policy Institute are dark money groups by their very nature (RPAC being a Hybrid PAC or “Carey Committee, and RPI being a 501c4); to what degree was setting up these organizations this way your call vs Cenk’s vs anyone else’s?
• What does Rebellion PAC actually do? When the group first emerged, they shared some of their work - such as an ad I will ask about in a moment - but since then, the work product is hard to uncover on social media or on the group’s website or through FEC filings; so please, in a non-vague way, help me and others understand what Rebellion PAC has been doing and is doing and for whom (specific candidates, etc).
• What do you do for Rebellion PAC as their executive director? (If any of these questions are incorrectly stated because its work is being done through the 501c4 and not the PAC please note that in your response)
• I have heard Connor say you mainly raise money and are quite good at it but when pressed he says he doesn’t actually know how much, how that compares to others, etc. Please clarify if you can.
• I have also heard you say your job involves looking at polls - this is also very vague, so can you elaborate on what this actually means and who it’s for?
• I have also heard you say that your job involves “political organizing” - a specific part of professional campaigning especially near and dear to me - so can you explain what political organizing you do or have been doing through Rebellion PAC?
• If there is anything else you do for Rebellion PAC not already mentioned, please share.
• I noticed a number of large contribution refunds on Rebellion PACs recent FEC reports. What caused those?

• Do you regret having Rebellion PAC spend almost a quarter million dollars to support Nina Turner (2021 - 2022)?

• Was it appropriate for Rebellion PAC to release an ad targeting Nina Turner’s opponent, titled, “Dark Money” when Rebellion PAC is itself a dark money organization that also has an even darker 501c4?

• The top 2 vendors for Rebellion PAC are, “Digital Strategy Group” and “Zeta Global” - who are they, and what do they do specifically for Rebellion PAC?

• The most recent Form 990-N for Rebellion Policy Institute (2023) states “Gross receipts not greater than: $50,000” do you expect that to be the same for 2024?

• As a fraction or percentage, regarding your work and compensation for Rebellion PAC and Rebellion Policy Institute, how much of your work / compensation comes from each?
• Since IRS filings are very opaque compared to the FEC and even worse with 501c4s, and worse yet with Form 990-N “postcards” can you share more details about Rebellion Policy Institute? Where does its money come from? How it is spent?

TOPIC 3: REBELLION PAC & REBELLION POLICY INSTITUTE - THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONFLICTS

• You have recently publicly divorced yourself from the Progressive Left and the “Freak Left” - this is entirely your prerogative, so there is no judgment on your choice to do that or why - but Rebellion PAC still bills itself as a strident Progressive Left organization; the organization was originally founded by Cenk Uygur, was launched on TYT, still seems to be supported by Cenk Uygur, and appears to be financially supported by people you would describe as members of the Freak Left; how do you square all of these circles?

• Cenk Uygur is one of the biggest cheerleaders of the “Freak Left”
  and remains unapologetically anti-centerist, anti-Biden, proudly progressive; you and Uygur seem to have dramatically diverged politically from one another in recent months, yet you’re still the executive director of (by all objective measures) his organization…
  To put it bluntly, how are you still the executive director of an organization (Rebellion PAC) that is so unaligned with your very strong and publicly stated rejection of what the organization is supposedly about?
• Why haven’t you taken the principled choice to leave the organization yet?
• Why hasn’t Uygur severed the relationship yet?

I realize these are tough questions but they’re also very obvious ones.
Similarly, the three publicly listed directors of Progressive Policy Institute, apart from you, are: Cenk Uygur, Julie Oliver, Saikat Chakrabarti; all of these people - after studying their social media accounts and donation histories - seem to embody the version of the left you have publicly sworn off as cancerous to the leftward cause.

Rebellion Policy Institute Incorporation Filings with The State of Virginia

Again, the misalignment of stated values doesn’t add up; how are you still involved with Rebellion Policy Institute?

I realize that most of these questions are going to be uncomfortable to answer, but I think we can both agree on a few things:

1. When it comes to how our elections are financed and the public is influenced, the public has the right to know how they are being influenced and they certainly have the right and reason to ask questions.
2. When people like you and I sign up to get involved with organizations like these (and every day we choose to remain affiliated with them) we are knowingly signing up for significant scrutiny. And if we choose to sign up with organizations that are of the “darker” variety, we open ourselves up to even more scrutiny.
3. You have chosen to become an internationally recognized political influencer, and in so doing you open yourself up to the highest levels of scrutiny and indeed owe it to the public you seek to influence to be open with them about who you are, what you’ve done to deserve to be on that pedestal, etc; You have also chosen to put your work as Executive Director for Rebellion PAC front and center of your public image so pointed questions like the ones I have asked are fair and inevitable.
4. As a public figure’s prominence rises, they will undoubtedly attract “haters” - this has certainly happened to me in the past and it has obviously happended to you on a much greater scale - however, we both know that I am not a “Brianna Wu Hater” so I hope you will answer my questions honestly, objectively, in as great of detail as possible, but not as if you’re being asked by a hater or someone out to “sweep” for you.

Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Andrew