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GoFundMe relents on Freedom Convoy refunds while CEO runs for cover; DeSantis vows ‘fraud’ probe

February 6, 2022 | | Print Article

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In a stunning, unprecedented about-face, a major left-wing corporation has bent the knee to the right.

After the left-wing fund-raising platform GoFundMe first froze and then suspended the Canadian Freedom Convoy’s campaign last week, the site issued a statement on Friday announcing that they would only be offering refunds to those who applied for one.

The rest of the money, the fundraising platforming asserted, would be funneled to charities ostensibly of the Freedom Convoy’s choosing.

This stipulation triggered an immediate backlash, with critics expressing concern that, given GoFundMe’s notorious support for left-wing radicalism, the money would wind up in the hands of dangerously far-left non-profits instead.

This, they said, amounted to the platform “stealing” the money — which, they argued, was something Republican attorneys general across the country should investigate.

Look (*Language warning):

Even billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk got in on the backlash, posting a tweet equating GoFundMe to “professional thieves.”

Look:

The combined backlash worked.

In Twitter posts published early Saturday morning, GoFundMe backtracked and announced it’d be issuing automatic refunds instead.

Look:

But it appears the left-wing platform’s backtracking came too late.

Later that morning, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, posted a tweet accusing GoFundMe of “fraud” and vowing to “investigate” its “deceptive practices” with the help of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

A couple hours later, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton jumped aboard as well, announcing that he’s “assembled a team to investigate their potential fraud & deception.”

Look:

Meanwhile, GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan has reportedly locked his Twitter account, presumably in response to all the backlash being directed at him in particular.

He’s pulled the same stunt several times, most notably after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of murder in the deaths of three left-wing extremists.

“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime,” the company said in a statement after Rittenhouse’s acquittal in an attempt to explain why it’d removed his fundraiser a year earlier.

But as noted at the time by former Trump administration official Richard Grenell, its excuse was bull:

Cadogan eventually unlocked his account and will likely do the same as well this time around once the current backlash against GoFundMe subsides.

This, however, may take some time. As of Sunday morning, GoFundMe’s latest tweets had a combined 40,000 comments and 11,000 retweets, virtually all of them negative, but only 9,900 likes. That’s what’s called a ratio — an epic one, to boot.

Vivek Saxena
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