After Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick witnessed the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13, he called for cooler political rhetoric.
McCormick said he believes divisive and inflammatory political rhetoric is partly responsible for the shooting that injured Trump and killed rallygoer Corey Comperatore, and he is calling on people on both sides of the aisle to tone down the way they talk about each other and about politicians they disagree with.
“I hope it makes people stop and think,” McCormick said in interview with local CBS station the day after the shooting. “The political rhetoric that we’re seeing and that’s growing is really disturbing. It’s hard to imagine that this environment of meanness and inhuman rhetoric isn’t contributing to the violence.”
But McCormick’s calls to tone down his political rhetoric have drawn renewed criticism for his investment in the right-wing social media platform Rumble, which has been criticized for hosting anti-Semitism, amplifying conspiracy theories AND allowing films with extremist rhetoric to remain available on the website.
According to him latest financial disclosure, McCormick has invested between $1 million and $5 million in the site.
The investment has already drawn criticism from McCormick’s opponent, incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), whose campaign mentioned it in the last attack ad.
The investment is one of many McCormick has disclosed in documents filed with the U.S. Senate. The reported assets include dozens of investments in individual companies, mutual funds, bonds, government-backed securities and real estate owned by McCormick and his wife, Dinah Powell, worth at least $129 million.
Rumble did not respond to questions sent by Capital-Star.
In a June filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company described itself as “a high-growth, neutral video platform and cloud provider that builds rails and agnostic infrastructure designed to be resistant to cancel culture. Rumble’s mission is to return the internet to its roots by making it free and open again.”
Many of the site’s most popular content creators, investors, and users are affiliated with the political right.
In the days following Trump’s assassination, the site posted numerous live streams and videos of the shooting on a select section of its homepage, with many of the videos suggesting Democratic or deep state involvement, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.
So far, the FBI he said No clear motive has been established, but an investigation into the shooting is ongoing. The office also said it appears the shooter acted alone.
False Claims About 2020 Election, COVID-19 Vaccines, and Immigrants also developed on Rumblemany of which are regularly repeated in videos or channels featured on the Rumble homepage and by for-profit content creators.
Content monetization allows video creators to earn money from views through advertising and other means. Many social media sites disable ads or block revenue for users who violate content policies.
A July 19 search for the term “election” on Rumble, repeated across multiple devices, one of which was using a virtual private network (VPN), mostly yielded results questioning the results of the 2020 election or the integrity of the upcoming 2024 election. Using multiple devices or VPNs are ways to prevent a user from “learning” a site’s algorithm and displaying content the user had previously viewed or clicked on.
Of the top 10 search results from July 19, eight videos each contained conspiracy theories that alleged coordinated interference in the 2020 or 2024 elections. Many of the videos also contained other conspiracy theories, including false claims that the assassination attempt on Trump was organized by Democrats or the deep state.
“The things we see [most mainstream social media] platforms trying to suppress, that’s central marketing for a platform like Rumble,” Jonathan Lewis, a research associate at the George Washington University Center on Extremism, told the Capital-Star. “The Fringe, the alt-right, the internet influencers and the scammers who were instrumental in the rise of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, who were instrumental in the mobilization to the Capitol on January 6th, those are the core users and core audience of Rumble.”
McCormick campaign spokesman he responded to this claim by arguing that the investor is not responsible for all of the website’s content, suggesting there is no inconsistency between the candidate’s call to tone down his political rhetoric and his investment in Rumble.
““Dave’s standing as a voice for moral clarity is undeniable,” said Nate Sizemore, a spokesman for McCormick’s campaign. “He has and will continue to condemn violent rhetoric. The idea that anyone who invests in Twitter or Facebook is responsible for the content of every post on the platform is absurd, and the same principle applies here.”
McCormick’s latest financial disclosure shows he previously invested in Twitter, though the amount was not disclosed and the assets were listed as “no longer held.”
Sizemore added: “McCormick’s outspoken voice against anti-Semitic encampments terrorizing college campuses stands in sharp contrast to Bob Casey’s voice, who has repeatedly remained silent.”
However, Democrats in Pennsylvania have raised concerns about McCormick’s investment in the site due to its alleged prevalence of anti-Semitic content.
At a news conference in March, Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), a Jewish lawmaker whose district includes the Tree of Life Synagogue, criticized the website for hosting anti-Semitic content.
According to the June report report from Trib LiveRumble sent a cease-and-desist letter to the state Democratic Party and Frankel himself, threatening to sue if lawmakers did not withdraw their claims.
“Rumble is not ‘anti-Semitic’ or ‘extremist,’” Elizabeth Locke, a lawyer representing Rumble, wrote in a letter to Frankel. “Instead, it is and has always been a proud, content-neutral video platform dedicated to protecting the free and open internet by providing a safe space for open discussion. Frankly, we are surprised that a political leader such as yourself would seek to denigrate Rumble for its commitment to First Amendment values that are central to American democracy.”
Rumble has a content moderation policy that includes disallowing content that “that are grossly offensive to the Internet community, including, but not constrained to, expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and hatred.”
Similar rules apply to user comments.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has said he doesn’t want Rumble to be associated solely with the far-right.
On Charlie Kirk Live during the Republican National Convention, Pavlovski stated that the site “is simply built on the premise of helping small creators get distribution and monetization that they weren’t getting on current platforms.”
Kirk is the founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA and a prominent 2020 election conspiracy theorist.
Kirk was also an early investor in Rumble, as were other conservative content creators, politicians, and donors.
Other investors besides McCormick and Kirk include Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential nominee Dan Bongino, a former Fox News personality who now has a show on the platform, and libertarian mega-donor Peter Thiel.
According to 2023 Pew Research SurveyAbout three-quarters of respondents who regularly receive news from Rumble identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning.
In his interview with Kirk, Pavolovski described Rumble as a place for content creators who have been banned or demonetized on other platforms.
“In 2021, it was just us,” Pavlovski said. “If you had an opinion on COVID, if you had an opinion on the election, and you disagreed with the narrative of the platforms that were there, they banned you. They were going to demonetize you or remove you.”
The site has also reached out to content creators outside of politics, striking deals with streamers focused on topics like gaming and hip-hop. Rumble was also a streaming partner for the 2023 Republican National Convention presidential debate.
According to Lewis, the researcher, “Rumble has quickly become the go-to platform for extremists who want to create long-form video content,” Lewis said. “And that should tell you everything you need to know about how eager Rumble is to appeal to this very specific subset of actors,” he said.
