Bob Vander Plaats, an evangelical leader in Iowa, has admitted to being paid 95K by the DeSantis campaign prior to his endorsement. What a waste of money – considering this guy was happy to be a Never Trumper for free.
(Reuters) – The DeSantis campaign, a super PAC linked to him and a nonprofit group supporting him together paid $95,000 in recent months to the Family Leader Foundation, an Iowa-based nonprofit led by evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats, according to campaign finance reports and a document prepared by an Iowa state lawmaker who was helping the Vander Plaats organization raise money for a July 14 presidential candidate forum.
The document and the amount spent by DeSantis and his allies are previously unreported.
For that money, DeSantis and supporting groups got three pages of advertisements in a booklet distributed at the July forum attended by 2,000 Christian conservatives, and tickets to the summit, lunch and an after-dinner event.
But the real value may be more in building a relationship with Vander Plaats, whose endorsement is coveted in the early-voting state, said three campaign finance experts and an academic who studies Iowa campaign spending.”
BREAKING: Iowa evangelical leader admits he was paid by the DeSantis Team prior to his endorsement pic.twitter.com/EoVmMPLe1y
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 21, 2023
Desantis could have helped unite the Republican Party by endorsing President Trump for 2024. Instead, he chose to run against him and divide our country further in an act of sheer desperation. Please clap…
Cheapens even further the term “Evangelical Leader”
Sadly.
This guy(the evangelist) is just another piece of shit in a long line of religious demagogues that use that use God for power and money. In the words of Paul, I’m a chief sinner and realize my very best is nothing but filthy rags. However, people like him, are going to face consequences that will not be good.
His money changing table would have been front and center the day Jesus drove them all out.
There are few more repugnant sellouts than this false pious cuck Vander Plaats and like ilk “pac” allies. He’s a long time pal of Steve Deace another rabid DeSantis shill with a channel on Glenn Beck’s Blaze network and his two supplicant co-hosts. Hits Trump every time they can even envision the opportunity. Deace is a pompous ass which is too bad because other than this he’s right on damn near everything else. He’s also prolific on Twatter with this gem being typical Deace: “Proud to endorse for president the most successful Republican politician so far this century. #withDeSantis. Let this one sink in. And Deace’s “endorsement” plus 10 cents gets DeSantis a piece of bubble gum – if that. https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/1727462811528290565/photo/1
Rev. Jim Baker and Tammy Faye Baker come to mind for some reason….
I must have heard it wrong. I thought it is Jim and Tammy Bay Faker.
Sorry! I did NOT mean to flag this post. My big clumsy finger hit it and now it will not let me uncheck it! I am so sorry. 😔🙏
…man-made religion of every description lost in the death of Satan’s deceit…denigrating life & love of our Father…Son Christ Jesus stands for relief…Son Christ Jesus stand for relief.
Wise men leave these man-made monkeyshines behind.
He could have done a lot of things. As governor of the State of Florida, he was informed of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago as procedure dictates. If he were not warned of it he could have and should have posted about it on his twitter. Oh wait, he DID but from his personal account if I recall but NEVER spoke about it officially. Could it be that he knew he would get called out on it for knowing and not stopping it?
“Oh, but Daniel, he wouldn’t be allowed to do that!” Yes he would and he demonstrated that when the feds were being sent to Florida to “observe Florida elections.” He denied and rejected them from doing so. A state’s governor has such authority AND, as per procedure the local and state’s police are ALSO warned ahead of time that the feds are coming in so there are no accidental armed confrontations. In fact, I’d go so far as to assert that Trump’s secret service at Mar-a-lago were also informed if they were present at that time.
Sundance tracked DeSantis’s trajectory long before any of us regulars here did. And this, combined with Dan Bongino’s position that “we don’t worship people here! We worship only God! We judge people by their results!” I will never again hold faith in any candidate.
I voted for Trump because I wanted to see him act as the Bull in the china shop. He wasn’t. He did the best he could with the corrupt government and the global IC that he could and he didn’t do anything with which I disagreed. I’m voting for Trump again and I will hope he will rip them a new one when he wins.
The things I am confident of;
2024 will NOT be a repeat of 2020, and should PDJT have a second term as POTUS, it will NOT be a repeat of his first.
I believe he WILL “rip them a new one” and be far more aggressive for a # of reasons.
He will have 4 years to dismantle the deep State thoroughly enough that TPTB can not simply reverse all of his policies overnight.
I’m not confident at all that “2024 will NOT be a repeat of 2020”. First, think of all the millions of new “immigrants” the dimo’rats are paying for, in transportation, homes, medical care, food etc, and why would they so obviously and egregiously let them stream in by the thousands daily, if not to throw their masses at the next national election? First and last I should say, because that’s all they really need to do. That’s all they’ll need to make a TOTAL SHAM of our democratic election processes.
And what if they get caught? How many were caught cheating in 2020 and what has been done about it? Not NEARLY enough (we don’t even hear about it from “Pravda”) and certainly the presidential election was NOT overturned.
So what will the dims try to make happen in 2024? More of exactly the same, in spades. How successful we are in stopping them depends entirely on how many people actually care about legality, morality, and Truth.
I’m with your thoughts 100% dutchman. After all the left has put him through it’s time for payback! The words of Joe sourdough on MSMBC sound like fear mongering, but to me it’s a fear from them knowing their time is coming. All they can do is cluck like chickens in a coop waiting for the carnivores to attack. I pray to God our real President overcomes the cheat they will bestow upon him in the next 11 months.
He will have to act fast to implement his cabinet leaders first. He can and will get them in one way or another without the Senates help. Once that is accomplished then the cleansing of the agencies can begin. And when that happens they better run for the hills.
Watching this happen to me is like watching my Eagles team get their behinds handed to them in the first half of that SB rematch, then winning in the end. It was SWEET! But this will be SWEETER than ever. Happy Thanksgiving my friend to you and all of yours.
I’ve been of the opinion for a while now that Trump needs to distance himself from the Evangelical lobby. This development only reinforces that opinion.
You would be very wrong.
Real evangelicals are with President Trump, and always have been. They called COVID at almost the same exact time President Trump was rolling out his Evangelicals for Trump 2020 program and they shut down all the churches. They are massively afraid of these bible thumpin’ voters and always have been. That is why they are now on the domestic terrorists list along with Catholics and Oath Keepers and everyone else.
Vander Plaats is a frequent guest on the Steve Deace show, which I used to watch fairly religiously (pardon the pun), but he Deace just kept tearing down Trump, even as he realized Trump was winning. I applaud Steve on principle for sticking with DeSantis, but like his support of Cruz, he needs to read the tea leaves and see reality, rather than exhibit conservative TDS.
maybe Deace got some dough , too
It’s not about who he’s endorsing. It’s about what he’s endorsing.
Trump=Main Street rule
DeSantis=Corporatocracy (same as Cruz)
Are you sure you want people with those “principles” in the party?
I don’t know if I’m one of many or perhaps the first one who had this preacher from the gloriously funny WKRP in CINCINNATI show come to mind.
He has line in this couple of minutes where, although he should NOT be making sales in his radio slot, he offers a product for free…with a minimum donation.
I hate that. It’s nothing more than a gimmick.
Absolutely great show!!
WKRP in Cincinnati is one of the extremely few TV oldies that I truly loved. Perfect casting, great scripts, flawless acting, and as much situational and punchline humor as anything anybody ever put out there. An absolute jewel. Johnny is the first and last face I always see when I remember that show.
And neither of them are embarrassed by this being made public? Should we assume all endorsements are simply paid advertising?
Republican or Democrat, makes no difference, they’re both the same and against you!
Someone needs to inform these preachers that you can’t take it with you and though you might consider it making life easier on earth, you won’t always be on earth.
no wonder no one attends church anymore
I sincerely wish that DeSantis would just “give it up.” And, get back to work at his real job: trying to be the best Governor that Florida has ever had, and showing his 49 colleagues just what the Office can be. (And, how powerful.)
I thought he had enough political savvy by now to know when “he is just being played as a spoiler.” The people of Florida elected him to this(!) post, and it and they deserve his undivided attention. Stop being distracted by a dream that will never come true, and get back to work. Bloom where you are planted. 🌸
Unfortunately, his governorship was a show, meant to launch his Presidential campaign. He’s shown himself to be rudderless, no true beliefs, just a listing vessel, as he described Trump supporters. F him, can’t wait for his show to end
DeSantis and the state legislature are destroying the Florida housing sector. The middle class and retirees are being savaged by DeSantis.
Regarding some other comments: It’s NOT “religion” or “evangelicals” at fault here, it’s the cheating, lying and crookery that is far too common in our election processes and throughout society. It is the evil corruption that is even further saturating every nook and cranny of our lives and institutions.
But in all of that corruption I am incredibly thankful that there are still so many people – including other priests/preachers/ministers and tons of ordinary folk – who will call out evil and corruption and try to do something about it, even if it’s only telling somebody else about it or trying to stand against it oneself.
That’s funny. After Trump made that post, Vander Plaats spent weeks on Twitter expressing his outrage that Trump would say such an obvious lie about his morals…the lie that turned out to be true.
Being a Never Trumper pays a good salary, it seems.
I’m sure the Reverend looks good in sack cloth and ashes, but he looks so much better in a thousand dollar suit. Praise the Lord and pass the collection plate….daddy’s gotta get a new Gulfstream 5
My gut reaction to this headline news was the continuing deepening disgust with the optics manipulation of the handlers of DeSantis, but that was not the most visceral reaction.
My most visceral reaction was of the cheap and disgusting prostitution of the name of Jesus for money — worse than Judas. I never heard of Van der Plaats before it was revealed that he was going to make an announcement in support of DeSantis. I never heard of the “prominent conservative organization “Family Leader Foundation” until then. So the fact that it was Fox making the announcement, and that I had never heard of them, had my suscpicious cat on alert.
Whoever Van der Plaats is and whoever the “Family Leader Foundation” is — they are seeking to lead people to follow Jesus, and now they’ve accepted money to make an announcement, taking advantage of people seeking to understand Jesus, to manipulate them to vote for an empty suit.
This man and organization purporting to be a spiritual guide and organization to be trusted as one who “follows Christ” and therefore what they say can be trusted. This is now proven to be manipulative dung.
Whatever value an endorsement might have had by claiming to be based on spiritual principles, is now invalidated by the fact that they took money for the endorsement. He is no longer credible as a man of God, or an organization of God, but has declared himself to be a fake prostitute.
The fact that he, now that the money has come to light, says he should have taken more money — further confirms his shallow wisdom and understanding of spiritual principles.
I predict this act of prostitution intended to support Desantis will be apparent to any Christians seeking real truth, and they will see the evil in the man Van der Plaat, the organization, and indirectly in DeSantis.
Yikes.
DeSanctus is finished. Please go back to Florida before we lose that governorship . Enough is enough.
Ronnie,
You are such a Me-hypocrite !
Where are you advertising the sale of your campaign ?
Hypocrite !
For a mere endorsement, you’ve just sold your soul ….
If you win, what else are you ready to sell ? Florida ? US ?
Just drop off …, resign your gov position and retire ….
And remember !!!
The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
Tennessee Williams
This Vander Plaats fellow is the furthest thing from a Christian that one could possibly be. It is “men” like him that cause people to be cautious about following God. May he repent for his greed, before it’s too late. “Men” like him will be held to account for every person that he caused to steer away from Christianity.