Critics bash House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's ‘bait and switch’ fundraising email

An email sent by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had the subject line “NOT asking you for money.”

And then it went on to ask for money.

What happened?

The email was sent out in February on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the official campaign arm of the House Democrats, the Daily Caller reported. The email started off by suggesting Republicans were compromising U.S. national security by failing to fully investigate Russian election interference.

“It’s clear to me that these Republicans have more loyalty to their political party than our country,” Pelosi’s email stated. “Their actions are dangerous. They’re reckless. And they’re disqualifying.”

Critics saw the email as a way to entice supporters to take a “Russian Investigation Survey.” At the end of the survey was a request for donations.

“Will you pitch in $3 (or more!) to help the DCCC support Democratic House candidates every step of the way to victory and flip the House in 2018?” stated the last question of the survey.

Who complained about it?

The Center for Public Integrity noted that Pelosi’s “bait-and-switch” fundraising email is among a more than two dozen DCCC emails since January 2017 that used similar tactics.

The Center called the DCCC’s fundraising emails unparalleled in national politics.

"No other national political party committee — Republican and Democrat — so overtly serves such bogus fare. Save for a couple of Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee messages of a similar sort, DCCC all but owns a monopoly on communications that begin with a demonstrable lie,” an article on the Center’s website states.

A few “similarly misleading” fundraising emails have also been sent out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Daily Caller reported.

The emails are raising tens of millions of dollars.

Campaign finance disclosures showed that since the beginning of 2017, the DCCC raised $86.3 million, primarily from small donations, the report stated. That’s more than three times what was raised by the National Republic Congressional Committee.

Texas Rep. Martin Frost (D) said House Democrats should not apologize for the emails. Frost also chaired the DCCC in the late 1990s.

“Criticism isn’t deserved. They’re doing a hell of a job fundraising,” Frost told the Center for Public Integrity.