Britain’s Labour Party is or was planning to interfere in this year’s presidential election by sending volunteers to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in battleground states — where polls show that she is losing to Donald Trump.
Labour operative Sofia Patel solicited volunteers to blanket four states on behalf of the Democratic nominee, and told them not to worry about housing.
Foreign election interference, notably from Russia, has been a major complaint from Harris and the leftist mainstream media.
Whether Harris and her Mainstream Media Information Ministry will denounce this interference — which could well be considered an illegal independent expenditure or in-kind contribution — is unclear.
“Nearly 100”
The Politics UK X feed exposed the effort to help Harris.
“Nearly 100 current and former Labour Party staff are going to battleground states in the US election to campaign for Kamala Harris, with the party offering to ‘sort your housing,’” the feed said over a screenshot of Patel’s plea for Harris volunteers.
Wrote Patel:
I have nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the US in the next few weeks heading to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. I have 10 spots available for anyone to head to the battleground state of North Carolina — we will sort your housing. Email me on [email protected] if you’re interested. Thanks!
“Patel, in addition to deleting the post, appeared to [have deleted] her entire LinkedIn page as of Friday morning as well,” Fox News reported:
There is no indication the Labour Party’s efforts have been coordinated with the Harris campaign. Fox News Digital reached out to both for comment but did not receive any on-the-record response by publication time.
Understandably, reaction was swift and furious.
“Election interference from foreign nationals,” U.S. Representative Mike Collins (R-Ga.) wrote on X. “Investigate!”
Elon Musk and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed that the help is illegal.
“Hello @UKLabour,” she wrote:
You are breaking @FEC laws.
Foreign nationals are not allowed to be involved in anyway in U.S. elections.
Please go back to the UK and fix your own mass immigration problems that are ruining your country.
Then came the pushback on those claims. A person you’ve never heard of, Isaac Saul, claimed that “this is only illegal if they are being compensated — the FB post indicates they are seeking volunteers.”
A community note below Greene’s post said the same thing.
Independent Expenditure, In-kind Contribution
But Greene linked to the Federal Election Commission’s “foreign nationals” page.
“Federal law prohibits contributions, donations, expenditures (including independent expenditures) and disbursements solicited, directed, received or made directly or indirectly by or from foreign nationals in connection with any federal, state or local election,” the law says:
This prohibition includes advances of personal funds, contributions or donations made to political party committees and organizations, state or local party committees for the purchase or construction of an office building funds under 11 CFR 300.35, and contributions or disbursements to make electioneering communications.
But again, as noted above, the effort was an official Labour Party operation. Patel wrote:
I have nearly 100 Labour Party staff (current and former) going to the U.S. in the next few weeks heading to North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
So it could well be considered an illegal independent expenditure. As well, “we,” meaning the party, “will sort your housing.”
The Brits’ travel isn’t or wouldn’t have been uncompensated — airfare, hotels, and rental cars all cost money.
The not-so-secret plan also could be considered an in-kind contribution. Again, per the FEC website:
An in-kind contribution is a non-monetary contribution. Goods or services offered free or at less than the usual charge result in an in-kind contribution. Similarly, when a person or entity pays for services on the committee’s behalf, the payment is an in-kind contribution. An expenditure made by any person or entity in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate’s campaign is also considered an in-kind contribution to the candidate.
Ukraine Interference
This isn’t the first time foreigners have tried to help Harris.
In September, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who canceled elections that could have replaced him, showed up in Pennsylvania.
Ostensibly he landed in the Keystone State to see the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, which is manufacturing an extra 22,000 155mm artillery shells a month for Ukraine.
But during an interview with The New Yorker that was released the same day he showed up at the munitions factory, Zelensky denounced U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s running mate, as “too radical” to be vice president.
Vance doesn’t want the United States to continue backing Ukraine’s war with Russia.
Zelensky said Vance doesn’t understand foreign policy and, even worse, doesn’t understand history.
The U.S. House Oversight Committee is probing the visit because Zelensky flew here on a U.S. Air Force jet.
“In 2019, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached President Donald J. Trump for abuse of power under the theory that he attempted to use a foreign leader — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — to benefit his 2020 presidential campaign, despite a lack of any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of President Trump,” Comer wrote to White House Counsel Edward Siskel, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland:
The Biden-Harris Administration recently flew the same foreign leader — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — on an American-taxpayer-funded flight to Pennsylvania, a battleground state in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, which has been described as the “trickiest battleground for Vice President Kamala Harris to win.” The Committee seeks to determine whether the Biden-Harris Administration attempted to use a foreign leader to benefit Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign and, if so, necessarily committed an abuse of power.
Battleground Polls
Notably, the polls show that Harris is behind Trump in all seven battlegrounds.
The RealClearPolitics averages of polls show that Trump is ahead by these margins:
- Pennsylvania: Trump, +0.5
- North Carolina: Trump +1
- Georgia: Trump, +1.1
- Arizona: Trump +1.4
- Wisconsin: Trump +0.1
- Michigan: Trump +0.9
- Nevada: Trump +0.5
H/T: Ace of Spades
