Introducing America Rising Squared, U.S. Republicans' "Creepy" New Assault on Climate Action

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In a video posted to Vine, respected author and climate change campaigner Bill McKibben turns for just a second or two to eyeball the person holding the camera, before turning his gaze back to the front of the room.ย There is no context to the video.ย  Nothing isย said.

In another video taken in Australia, McKibben is shown speaking to an audience, but the context is again removed.ย  His words are replaced withย music.

To most people chancing upon the videos, the two clips would seem incongruous andย pointless.

But the Vine channel belongs to CoreNews.org โ€”ย a website that is the public facing arm of a new politically-motivated attack on environmentalists and climate change campaignersย operated by well connected political advisers andย researchers.

Lasting only a few seconds, the videos were an attempt to put a shot across the bows of McKibben and his supporters, of which there are many.ย A promise made weeks earlier by Republican Party activists to follow him around with a video camera โ€”ย wherever he might go โ€”ย had apparentlyย begun.

The videos were taken by so-called โ€œtrackersโ€ working for America Rising Squared (AR2),ย an operation that has sprung from the new wave of attacksย on climate activistsย that has become a mainstay of the US politicalย machinery.

AR2 staffers have so far identified three key targets โ€” billionaire investor and climate action advocate Tom Steyer, McKibben and environmental activistsย generally.

UPDATE AUGUST 5: Bill McKibben wrote about his experiences being stalked by America Rising Squared trackers for The New York Times:ย Embarrassing Photos of Me, Thanks to My Right-Wing Stalkersย 

Check out DeSmog’s new profile of America Risingย Squared

Brian Rogers, AR2 executive director, has said his group will โ€œhold Steyer and the Environmentalist Left accountable for their epic hypocrisy and extreme positions which threaten Americaโ€™s futureย prosperity.โ€

One early contribution of ARsquared.orgย was a slick video accusing Tom Steyer of hypocrisy over previous fossil fuelย investments.

Steyer toldย The New Yorkerโ€™s Jane Mayerย the accusations were โ€œcomplete and utter nonsenseโ€ because, Mayer wrote, his investments were held in trusts where profits were transferred to aย charity.

โ€œThey have to know theyโ€™re lying. Itโ€™s completely dishonest, unethical, and pitiful. And itโ€™s creepy,โ€ Steyer said, adding while the attacks would not deter him, he was concerned they could put others off climateย activism.

McKibben told DeSmog: โ€œI think it’s pretty clear that they want to talk about anything other than climateย change.โ€

AR2 has launched a new website, Core News, to push its partisan talking points into the public space. The site is accompanied by a YouTube channel, Vine account, Twitter feed and Facebook page.

AR2 has its origins in the spring 2013 launch of America Rising PAC โ€”ย the political action committee created by Republicans to carry out so-called โ€œopposition researchโ€ into Democrat opponents. The PACโ€™s prime target is Hillaryย Clinton.

America Rising PAC employs trackers to follow candidatesโ€™ every move in the hope of capturing a potentially embarrassing slip-up or hypocritical statement while researchers dig into their histories for anything that might put them in a badย light.

In a submission last week, America Rising said itย had filed โ€œalmost 2000โ€ FOIA requests as part of itsย work.

America Risingโ€™s research and tracking material is pushed to the public domain through branded channels, media briefings or paidย advertising.

America Rising was reportedly a direct response to the Democratโ€™s own opposition research group, American Bridge (remember the now former Republican Senator Todd Akinโ€™s โ€˜legitimate rapeโ€™ remarks came from an American Bridgeย tracker).

At the same time as the PAC was launched, a for-profit company America Rising LLC was also formed to carry out paid work on behalf of its allies in the Republicanย movement.

Joining the PAC, the LLC and AR2 is a fourth group โ€” the private company Definers Public Affairs โ€” that shares the politically-linked leadership of America Rising and several staff members with the otherย groups.

For example, AR2‘s executive director Brianย Rogers isย also a Senior Vice President at Definers.ย Rogers is a former senior adviser to Republican Senator John McCain and held key roles in McCain’s run for the US presidency in 2008. As reported on Huffington Post, Rogers also had a short stint working for Al Gore’s Allianceย for Climate Protection.

AR2โ€™s communications director is Jeremy Adler, who moved straight out of the offices of Marco Rubioโ€™s failed campaign for the Republican nomination. Before that stint, Adler was a research analyst at America Rising LLC and a โ€œwar roomโ€ researcher forย Republicans.

Natalie Gillam, anotherย former Republican party researcher for the RNC and NRSC, is now AR2โ€™s deputy communicationsย director.

Definers Public Affairs:ย Private Political Operatives For Corporateย Hire

The well-connected political operatives at Definers are offering to do for corporations what they have been doing for their friends in politics โ€” dig for dirt and track theirย opponents.

According to the Definers website, the company will โ€œbuild and influence media narratives, move public opinion and provide powerful ammunition for your public relations and government affairsย efforts.โ€

Matt Rhoades, the founder of Definers, was Mitt Romneyโ€™s campaign manager when the former Massachusetts governor ran for president inย 2012.

Definers president Joe Pounder, who co-founded America Rising LLC, is also a veteran of Marco Rubioโ€™s campaign and a former researchย director at the Republican Nationalย Committee.

According to Politico, Pounder and Rhoades have been working to try and discredit investigative journalist and author Janeย Mayer.ย 

The New Yorkerโ€™s Mayer has become a target over her detailed reporting of the oil billionaire Koch brothers and their outsized influence on the US politicalย right.

AR2 has been registered with the IRS as a not-for-profit 501(c)4ย โ€œsocial welfareโ€ organisation โ€“ meaning it does not have to disclose its funders but is generally allowed to spend up to half its cash on politicalย activity.

The funders of AR2 are not known and 501(c)4 groups do not have to declareย them.

But it seems likely that supporters of AR2 will be drawn from a similar pool of donors to America Risingโ€™s political action committee (PAC).

According to America Rising PACโ€™s filings, compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, donors in this electoral cycle include so called โ€œvulture capitalistโ€ Paul Singer, who gave $250,000. Singer has also donated to the work of Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg, who holds contrarian views on climate science and says the worldโ€™s poorest countries need to burn vast quantities of fossilย fuels.

Another recent America Rising donor is Brian France, the CEO of auto racing association NASCAR, who gave $15,000.ย  France has endorsed Donald Trump forย president.

In a statement responding to the new attack strategy, McKibben says: โ€œIโ€™m of course flattered that our work has exposed the fossil fuel industry enough that they feel the need for this kind of personal attack โ€” but as usual, the real news is the lengths they will go to avoid talking about the greatest issue of our time, their ongoing wreckage of the planetโ€™s climate, and in the process so many of its people.โ€
ย 

Main image: Bill McKibben.ย Flickr/University of Michigan School of Natural Resources andย Environment

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