MAGA Activist Sneaked Onto the Convention Floor in a Disguise

Plus: Bernie opens up for the rich guys.

(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Where’s Weirdo?

National political conventions can attract a lot of strange people, a lot of famous people, and a lot of people who are both. I saw a few of each last night at the Democratic convention, including Comedy Central’s Jordan Klepper, as well as “The Good Liars” Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler.

I also spotted Matt Walsh, the right-wing podcaster and activist who has supported “theocratic fascism,” airports operated by white men only (?), and the normalization of impregnating teenage girls “when they’re at their most fertile.”

Walsh was wearing a disguise consisting of what he presumably believes is liberal attire. It included a long-haired wig, a “White Dudes for Harris” t-shirt, a tweed sport coat adorned with buttons bearing different slogans, a MAGA-esque high-crown red hat featuring a “Kamala Harris for President” logo, and a lavalier microphone for recording interactions. He was also wearing exceptionally skinny jeans, but I don’t think those were part of the disguise—just his preferred style.

Walsh regularly dons a similar disguise to film gotcha moments for his “documentaries” lampooning progressives. For that reason, it wasn’t difficult to recognize him even on the crowded convention floor. I asked him if he was Matt Walsh.

“No I’m not,” he said after a wide-eyed look. When I followed up with, “I know it’s you,” he replied: “That man is dead. I’m a new man now.”

The whole experience felt very familiar.

Walsh wasn’t wearing the Secret Service overlay for his lanyard issued to members of the press. But he did have an authorized cameraman in tow. As I mentioned in a  previous issue of Press Pass, it’s not that difficult to get a floor pass. If you know someone who knows someone, you can round up some extras.

Walsh works for the Daily Wire, so I asked a spokesperson for the Democratic National Convention whether Walsh was authorized to be there and what happened to him after, presumably, more people found him out. I’ll let you know if I hear back.

But clearly, there is some concern about under-cover conservative personalities trying to catch convention goers in weird moments. At least two people we tried to interview last night were reluctant to talk because, they said, they’d been told that right-wing media was in the halls trying to dupe them.

A Salve for the Bern

The progressive challenge to the Democratic “establishment” seems to be over. As my colleague Andrew Egger noted in The Bulwark’s Morning Shots newsletter,

Eight years ago, delegates supporting Bernie Sanders put up a memorable floor fight against the DNC for putting a thumb on the scales in favor of Hillary Clinton. The publication of hacked committee emails online ended up forcing the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Four years later, progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke for only 90 seconds in the symbolic role of putting Sanders’s name forward for nomination again. It was widely perceived as a bit of a snub.

This time around, both luminaries of the formerly dissident left have played central roles in the convention programming—Ocasio-Cortez on Monday, Sanders last night—praising Harris and warning of the dangers of a second Donald Trump term.

Andrew posits that, thanks to Biden’s leadership, the progressive insurgents and the mainstream Democrats have reconciled their differences—or, at least, come to an understanding that trade-offs with each other in the name of progress is better than fissures that give you none. Here’s what happened in the arena last night:

Sanders rattled off one of his signature lines, telling the crowded arena, “We need an economy that works for all of us, not just the billionaire class.”

Immediately after, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who has a net worth of $3.5 billion and pumped more than a quarter billion into his own races, took the stage to tout his business chops: “Donald Trump thinks that we should trust him on the economy because he claims to be very rich. But take it from an actual billionaire, Trump is rich in only one thing: stupidity.”

After Pritzker, the big business portion of the evening didn’t stop. The convention next heard from former American Express CEO and venture capitalist Kenneth Chenault.

I haven’t seen any indications that Sanders et al. were upset or felt undermined by the contrast between progressive populists and captains of industry. Certainly, much of the credit for uniting the clans goes to Biden, who was moderate in temperament but instituted some of the most economically progressive policies in recent history.

But give some credit to Sanders and AOC and Elizabeth Warren, too. They’ve accepted that they represent part—but just part—of the Democratic coalition. But they also have used their influence strategically: moving the party to the left and, to a large degree, seeding the administration with personnel to affect the (often overlooked) implementation of policy. For now, everyone appears to be fine with that arrangement.

Blow the whistle

I want to take a quick break to share a fascinating story I read at GQ this morning about the life of a government whistleblower.

It turns out that there’s actually some good money to be made in exposing government corruption, and one man has figured out how to significantly supplement his income with it.

It’s a Saturday in a well-appointed room in a luxury hotel in a major American city and a man named Richard Overum has just escorted me from the lobby to brief me on my new identity. My directive: Embody a high roller. A man capable of signing a check for millions of dollars at a moment’s notice. And, most important, a man looking to make an investment. I need to look perfect, Overum explains. Because tonight, I’ll be shadowing him on a sting.

Richard Overum is not a member of law enforcement or a government official. He’s something else: a rarefied practitioner in a line of work he’s all but created for himself. He hunts businesspeople he suspects are breaking the law—a job that by virtue of oft-overlooked sections of federal law can end up paying remarkably well. Tucked into the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress passed in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal and the economic calamity of the late aughts, are provisions meant to encourage people who spot signs of potential financial wrongdoing to come to the government with information. The incentive? If the agencies take enforcement action based on a tip resulting in sanctions in excess of $1 million, the law says, one or more whistleblowers can earn an award equal to 10 to 30 percent of what’s collected.

Read the whole thing.