Oh, as you can see. I'm not just manga, I'm dark gothic manga. [00:00:16] Dark Gothic manga. Very, very cool. But over the past few weeks, Elon Musk has made it clear he'll do whatever it takes to get Donald Trump reelected, going as far as tricking and threatening his own canvassers. Now, canvassers and paid door knockers, who were contracted by a firm [00:00:35] that works with Musk's America PAC, spoke to wired magazine about the insane working conditions they were subjected to. This incident takes place in Michigan, where the Trump campaign outsourced most of its field operation to Musk and America PAC. [00:00:53] The canvassers were hired by a subcontractor called Blitz Canvasing, which America PAC has paid more than $9 million to oversee its field operation, wired reported. They were never told directly they were working for Musk's America PAC, [00:01:08] and only knew he was involved after they overheard supervisors say the billionaire's name, the source said. In fact, the canvassers didn't even know that they were knocking on doors for Trump, according to one of the door knockers who was flown out to Michigan. [00:01:25] I knew nothing of the job or much of the job description, other than going door to door and asking the voters who were who they were voting for. Then, after I signed an NDA is when I found out we were Republicans. We were for Republicans. And with Trump, it doesn't end there. [00:01:44] Because then came the threats and dangerous working conditions. The contract these door knockers signed with Blitz Canvasing said they are expected to maintain a 17 to 22% engagement rate during the operation, [00:02:00] which is a high target relative to the number of people who typically open their door for a stranger. A group of out of State America PAC canvassers were told during a recent team meeting that if they didn't hit their targets, which the door knocker says were more than 1000 a week on total doors knocked, [00:02:18] the organization would stop paying for their motel rooms. According to an audio recording that wired obtained, a manager was heard saying the following. What's going to happen is they're going to stop paying for these rooms, [00:02:34] and then you're going to end up having to pay for it yourself. You can't do that with no money. Canvassers were also told they would have to pay for their own flights home. And to make matters worse, they initially had zero transportation to even get around Michigan on Saturday, October 19th. [00:02:51] Supervisors for the canvassers initially commandeered some Ubers for them to reach their list of addresses, but by Sunday, the door knockers were loaded into a rented U-Haul, moving van with no rear seating or seat belts, and a photo and videos reviewed by wired. [00:03:09] The video from inside the van shows a bumpy ride, with a cage separating the mostly black door knockers from their driver. The driver also told the group of door knockers that he was in pain and had difficulty driving. I just had surgery, bro. [00:03:26] The U-Haul driver says in another recording obtained by wired. Like half my foot is cut off. Jenga does seem like the common theme with Elon Musk is calamity, danger, destruction. Are we really surprised that his upstart PAC is beset by dysfunction? [00:03:46] Yeah. I was asked in an interview yesterday if I was looking forward to Elon Musk heading up the government efficiency program, where he would get to decide what the government spends money on and what it doesn't. I was like, no, no, I am not looking forward to that. [00:04:04] Oh. So Trump's billionaire donor will run the whole government. Sounds great. So, look, guys, if you sign up for a job, you sign up for the job. So that's my it's not my bias, it's just the reality. But in this case, they didn't sign up for this job. [00:04:21] This is a borderline kidnaping they signed up for. Oh I'm going to ask people how they're voting. And apparently, you know, the article says mostly black. And most black voters, I don't know them in particular, are not in favor of Donald Trump. [00:04:37] I mean, that's just an extra on top of this, right? But then they turn around and go, no, and we tricked you. We flew you out to Michigan. Now you're not doing the job that you thought you were hired for. You're doing a different job where you have to kiss Donald Trump's ass and convince people to vote for him. [00:04:52] And if you don't, we're not going to pay for your hotel room or or necessarily your flight back. So what is this like? Like, seriously, it feels like a, like they got some hostages and it looks like it feels like one of those scams where they bring in people [00:05:07] from developing countries to, you know, be house cleaners or babysitters or nannies or whatever, and then they take away their passport and then they go, now you're stuck. Now you have to do everything I tell you to do. And you're a billionaire. Dude, you're I mean, you're the richest guy in the world. [00:05:25] You can't find people to. Well, maybe he can't. Maybe he can't find anyone to hire. Even to say that they're in favor of Donald Trump. So he had to go to this strategy. Isn't there millions of MAGA guys who would volunteer for this stuff? Apparently not. So he had to trick poor people who didn't sign up for it. [00:05:43] You guys sound like you'd do amazing as people running this country. Yeah, that's one of the things that maybe people should be encouraged by that in such a critical state like Michigan. They are. [00:05:59] I mean, allegedly like human trafficking or kidnaping people and holding them hostage and forcing them to canvas. One of the things that happened when Kamala Harris replaced Biden on the ticket was there was this huge groundswell, like 100,000 volunteers signed up in one [00:06:14] day, and they've gotten more since. And you see these types of movements on the left all the time. There was even more for Bernie in 2020. Many people flew across the state willingly, on their own dime. I was one of them because I was. I believed in that campaign and what he was, what he was putting [00:06:30] forward flew to Nevada to canvass, and I was met by hundreds and hundreds of other people who did the same. No one needed to round us up and throw us in a U-Haul. So maybe there is something to be encouraged by that. Even in Michigan, with people know when people know how critical of a state that [00:06:45] is, this is the tactics that they have to employ to get people out there to canvass. But to be fair, Trump's team denied all this. We have to report that, of course. And they're saying they're running the most sophisticated and modern campaign ever. [00:07:01] But this isn't even the first time that Musk's ground campaign has gotten flack. The PAC is reportedly using a third rate app with no geo locating that doesn't even appear in the Android or Apple Store. Data leaked to The Guardian also suggests America PAC canvassers [00:07:17] in Arizona and Nevada have been faking up to 25% of their recorded door knocks. Now, the point of these canvassers is to turn out the vote for Trump and get people who typically don't vote to show up and actually vote, [00:07:32] which in turn means the campaign may have failed to reach thousands of voters that they think or were expecting to reach and convert. Now, that is a big part of Trump's strategy. It's getting people who are sitting at home activating them, and that's one of their paths to victory. [00:07:48] But it looks like by giving it to Elon Musk, they may have failed in that effort. So let's see if he wins. Let's make sure Elon Musk is in the government. Yeah. So they're so sophisticated that they couldn't find any transportation for these folks other than a U-Haul truck with no seat belts. [00:08:06] Sounds super sophisticated. I can't wait for them to be in charge of Efficiency. And lastly, look, if you signed up to door Knock for Donald Trump and you're getting paid for it, you should do your job. But if you didn't sign up to Door Knock for Donald Trump [00:08:22] and they did a bait and switch on you, I don't know why that rates 25% fake. It should be 100% fake. What are you doing? Why are you bothering to actually do it right? Go to a nearby, Wendy's hang out. If they got a jersey. Mike's go there, have a nice time and go. [00:08:39] Oh, yeah, I knocked on all those doors. I bet this sophisticated app figures out that I didn't. I'll see you at the U-Haul. Thanks for watching The Young Turks. Really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. [00:08:56] You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. [00:09:11] Thank you.