The organizers of a mysterious network paid influencers to promote sexual smears of Vice President Kamala Harris as Democrats rallied around her to be their presidential candidate in late July.
The attacks were part of a campaign that was, on the surface, an unremarkable part of a new wave of social media marketing. It’s blurred the lines in both US political parties between paid advertising and the posts of enthusiastic supporters — as partisan influencers often cast themselves — who just happen to be paid.
The network that would push the sexual smears began with more run-of-the-mill Republican talking points, but it was unusual in one way, a person who participated in its video calls said: None of the participants identified themselves by name, and all joined calls with their cameras off to preserve their mutual anonymity. However, Semafor was able to identify one of them: former New York Republican Rep. George Santos, who spoke up on one conference call to object when the parties discussed making sexual allegations against Harris.
This influencer network was organized over emails and Zoom calls, and payments on the platform Zelle, according to Zoom invitations and Zelle receipts reviewed by Semafor, plus the descriptions of a person who participated in the calls. The money was good: One participant made more than $20,000 for several weeks of boosting assigned messages, according to the Zelle receipts.
The calls were organized by a man who went by the name James Bacon. He sent emails with the invitations to the calls, one of which was seen by Semafor, to influencers. The Zelle payments also came in his name.
The calls in June and early July encouraged participants to push familiar Republican talking points on X and, in particular, on Spaces, the platform’s live audio product. In the early summer, those talking points included attacking Judge Juan Merchan during Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York, casting President Joe Biden as feeble, and accusing Democrats of weaponizing the government against conservatives.
An invitation to a call on Monday, July 22, arrived under the subject line “War Room — Kamala Messaging,” according to an invitation seen by Semafor. At the time, Harris was fast consolidating support as the Democratic nominee, and Republicans were unsure of how to blunt her progress.
The influencers’ marching orders were clear: make a series of lurid sexual jibes aimed at Harris, the least crude of which was comparing her to Haliey Welch, the “Hawk Tuah girl” who became a viral sensation over a video of her discussing oral sex.
At that point, a recognizable voice on the anonymous call spoke up to object: Santos, the former Long Island congressman who now faces sentencing in federal court and has remade himself as a social media figure, announced that he disapproved of the messaging and left the call, the person who participated in the call and spoke to Semafor said.
Santos declined to comment on the incident, but later appeared to post on X about the situation:
“Oddly enough conservative influencers talking about Kamala’s sex life and race!” he tweeted July 24, less than 48 hours after he’d left the influencer call. “Please God make it stop….”
