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UpInArms

(51,284 posts) Wed Apr 18, 2018, 09:29 AM Apr 2018

$60,000 on video games classified as campaign expense?

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter's devil-may-care attitude has been a good fit for parts of his rural and suburban San Diego County district for about a decade, matching the Wild West ethos and anti-government bent of his constituents.

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The five-term congressman maintains his innocence. His aides and his lawyers did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the allegations for this story.

He has reimbursed his campaign account more than $60,000 since the FEC first questioned spending on video games in 2016, according to FEC records.

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A March 2017 search warrant showed that the FBI had searched the offices of Hunter's campaign treasurer in Alexandria, Virginia, seizing computers, documents and hard drives. Documents showed authorities were seeking any communication about disbursements between Hunter, his wife, several aides and the two employees at the firm that handled the books. The document retrieved by CNN from PACER later disappeared from public view, signaling that proceedings had moved on to a grand jury investigation.

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$60,000 on video games classified as campaign expense? (Original Post) UpInArms Apr 2018 OP

How is it possible to spend $60,000 on video games in one year? Oneironaut Apr 2018 #1

+1, exactly. FSogol Apr 2018 #2

I suspect something else Nictuku Apr 2018 #3

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm dembotoz Apr 2018 #5

Thanks for that explanation UpInArms Apr 2018 #6

a lot of fraud Angry Dragon Apr 2018 #4

Oneironaut

(5,495 posts)

1. How is it possible to spend $60,000 on video games in one year?

Reply to UpInArms (Original post)

Wed Apr 18, 2018, 09:37 AM

Apr 2018

Counting the price of games, services that go with them, micro-transactions, console prices and PC, etc, you would be hard-pressed to even top $10,000, imo.

“Video games” sounds more like online gambling.

FSogol

(45,485 posts)

2. +1, exactly.

Reply to Oneironaut (Reply #1)

Wed Apr 18, 2018, 09:39 AM

Apr 2018

Nictuku

(3,613 posts)

3. I suspect something else

Reply to UpInArms (Original post)

Wed Apr 18, 2018, 09:48 AM

Apr 2018

I think it might have more to do with this:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/01/gamergate-alt-right-hate-trump

With 2014’s Gamergate, Breitbart seized the opportunity to harness the pre-existing ignorance and anger among disaffected young white dudes. With Trump’s movement in 2016, the outlet was effectively running his campaign: Steve Bannon took leave of his role at the company in August 2016 when he was hired as chief executive of Trump’s presidential campaign.

Not so much gamergate, but there were lots of ads embedded in the game chat areas. Lots of racism and alt-right promotion of Trump. Now I don't know about Duncan Hunter, but this was the first thing I thought of when I saw Campaign and Video Games.