Michael Tracey isn’t a conservative, but you can be assured he’ll be accused of being one after this piece. It’s the usual modus operandi for the Left: if you betray the narrative, you’re with the other side. Luckily for him, he’s never been one to follow the leader. He was an original Russian collusion skeptic on the Left, earning him the ire of his colleagues. He couldn’t care less. He’ll call out his side if they’re being obnoxious. Take Kamala Harris’ Univision town hall—would it shock you that it was chock-full of her supporters despite being branded as an ‘undecided Latino voter’ town hall event?
No, of course not.
Note how many media outlets repeat that this event was full of "undecided Latino voters" -- simply repeating Univision's corporate press release -- when it turns out the event actually full of avowed Kamala-supporting voters who were recruited through a "fan" casting company! https://t.co/eO8f1EpIoP pic.twitter.com/7fjhVUVMgw
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 12, 2024
Tracey spoke with the seat-fillers, all self-proclaimed Kamala supporters bused in by a company that ensures high-profile events are packed with people. Tracey tried to interview those who asked Kamala those pre-selected questions but was blocked: [emphasis mine]:
“I already knew I was going to go for Kamala,” one town hall participant told me. “Part of the reason why I wanted to go was just, like, to also fully support her.”
“So you were already decided, before you came?” I asked another. “Yes,” she replied, declaring her support for Kamala.
The audience members I spoke to were selected with the help of a company called FansOnQ, according to the company’s founder, Conny Quintanilla, whose title for yesterday’s event was “Audience Manager.” The company puts out “casting calls” for events like the Latin Grammy Awards, which have been previously held in Las Vegas. It’s a type of company that you might not be consciously aware exists, but once you’re told of its existence, it makes perfect intuitive sense: people who want to dance at award shows are “vetted” by this particular company, perhaps for good looks and rhythmic skills. That’s the same company which filled the seats at Kamala’s town hall.
Another person told me he was able to attend because he “knows people” at an unnamed “progressive organization,” which somehow granted him the ability to get in the town hall audience. The person said he works as an intern for Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada. I’m not naming the person because he was wary of attribution. Others quoted here also didn’t want to be identified.
These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions. Those audience members were flown in from around the country at Univision’s expense. Which is a bit odd, because there would certainly have been plenty of genuine “undecided Latino voters” in Clark County, Nevada who I’m sure would’ve been more than happy to ask Kamala Harris a question.
NOTE: The non-question-asking attendees were still integral to the televisual production of the event, hence their recruitment. Uninformed viewers at home were under the false impression that the people they were watching react to Kamala’s answers were “undecided voters,” when numerous of them were in fact pre-committed Harris voters who sought to attend for the specific purpose of demonstrating their support for Kamala.
Naturally, I wanted to interview the actual question-asking attendees. However, a corporate dictate apparently came down prohibiting this. “We won’t be making them available,” Anna Negron, Director of Corporate Communications at TelevisaUnivision…
Gee, I wonder why. We made fun of the fact that a teleprompter was in view during this event, which wouldn’t shock us since the vice president is a disaster without a script. Supposedly, that’s been debunked; she wasn’t using such a device for this event, but this revelation is frankly much worse.