After witnessing the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick called for cooler political rhetoric.
McCormick has said he believes that divisive and incendiary political rhetoric is, in part, responsible for the shooting where Trump was injured and rallygoer Corey Comperatore was killed. And he’s calling for people on both sides of the aisle to temper the way they talk about one another and the politicians they disagree with.
“I hope it will have people step back and reflect,” McCormick said in an interview with a local CBS station the day after the shooting. “The political rhetoric that we see, and we’ve seen growing, is really concerning. It’s hard to imagine that this environment of nastiness and dehumanizing rhetoric doesn’t contribute to violence.”
But McCormick’s calls for toned-down political rhetoric have drawn renewed scrutiny of his investment in a social media platform popular on the right wing, Rumble, which has been criticized for hosting antisemitism, amplifying conspiracy theories and allowing videos with extremist rhetoric to remain available on the site.
According to his most recent financial disclosure, McCormick has between $1 million and $5 million invested in the website.
The investment has already brought criticisms from McCormick’s opponent, incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), whose campaign mentioned it in a recent attack ad.
The investment is one of many disclosed by McCormick in filings with the U.S. Senate. Reported assets include dozens of investments in individual companies, mutual funds, bonds, government-backed securities and properties owned by McCormick and his wife Dina Powell. Altogether, they’re worth at least $129 million.
Rumble did not respond to questions sent by the Capital-Star.
In a June filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company described itself as “a high-growth neutral video platform and cloud services provider that is creating the rails and independent infrastructure designed to be immune to cancel culture. Rumble’s mission is to restore the Internet to its roots by making it free and open once again.”
Many of the site’s most popular content creators, its investors, and its users, are associated with the political right.
In the days following the assassination attempt on Trump, the site platformed numerous livestreams and videos about the shooting on a curated section of its front page. Many of the videos alleged Democratic or deep state involvement, despite no evidence supporting those claims.
So far, the FBI has said no clear motive has been determined but investigations into the shooting are ongoing. The bureau has also said that it appears the shooter acted alone.
False claims about the 2020 election, COVID-19 vaccines and immigrants have thrived on Rumble as well, with many being repeated regularly on videos or channels featured on Rumble’s homepage and by monetized content creators.
Content monetization allows video creators to profit from views through advertisement and other means. Many social media sites will disable ads or block income for users who violate their content policies.
A July 19 search for the term “election” on Rumble, replicated on multiple devices, one using a virtual private network (VPN) , primarily turned up results casting doubt on either the results of the 2020 election or the fairness of the upcoming 2024 election. Using multiple devices or a VPN are ways to prevent a site’s algorithm from “learning” the user’s behavior and serving content the user previously viewed or clicked on.
Of the top 10 results in the July 19 searches, eight of the videos in each contained conspiracy theories alleging coordinated interference in either the 2020 or 2024 election. Many of the videos also included other conspiracy theories, including false claims that the Trump assassination attempt was orchestrated by Democrats or the deep state.
“The things that we see [most mainstream social media] platforms trying to tamp down on, that’s the central marketing for a platform like Rumble,” Jonathan Lewis, a research fellow at the George Washington University Center on Extremism, told the Capital-Star. “Fringe, right wing, online influencers and grifters that were pivotal to the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement’s growth, were pivotal to the mobilization to the Capitol on January 6, those are the primary users and the primary audience of Rumble.”
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A McCormick campaign spokesperson responded to this claim by arguing that an investor is not responsible for all of a website’s content, suggesting there was no incongruity between the candidate’s call to tone down political rhetoric and his investment in Rumble.
“Dave’s position as a voice for moral clarity is indisputable,” said Nate Sizemore, the McCormick campaign’s press secretary. “He has and will continue to forcefully condemn violent rhetoric. The idea that anyone who invests in Twitter or Facebook is responsible for the content of every post on the platform is absurd, and the same principle applies here.”
McCormick’s latest financial disclosure shows he was previously invested in Twitter, though an amount is not given and the asset is listed as “no longer held.”
Sizemore added, “McCormick’s strong voice against the antisemitic encampments terrorizing college campuses is a sharp contrast to Bob Casey, who has repeatedly failed to speak out.”
Democrats in Pennsylvania, however, have also raised concerns about McCormick’s investment in the site because of the alleged prominence of antisemitic content on it.
At a March press conference, Rep. Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny), a Jewish lawmaker whose district includes the Tree of Life synagogue, criticized the website for hosting antisemitic content.
According to a June report from Trib Live, Rumble sent a cease-and-desist letter to the state Democratic party and Frankel himself, threatening to sue if lawmakers didn’t retract their claims.
“Rumble is not ‘antisemitic’ or ‘extremist,’” Elizabeth Locke, a lawyer representing Rumble, wrote in a letter to Frankel. “Rather, it is, and always has been, a proudly content-neutral video platform dedicated to protecting a free and open internet by providing a safe space for open discourse. Frankly, we are surprised that a political leader, such as yourself, would seek to smear Rumble for its commitment to upholding the First Amendment values that are central to American democracy.”
Rumble does have a content moderation policy that includes disallowing content “that is grossly offensive to the online community, including but not limited to, racism, anti-semitism and hatred.”
It has similar rules for user comments.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski has said that he doesn’t want Rumble to be exclusively associated with the far right.
Appearing on the Charlie Kirk Show live at the Republican National Convention, Pavlovski said the site was, “based simply on the premise of helping the small creator getting the distribution and monetization they weren’t getting on the incumbent platforms.”
Kirk is the founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, and a prominent spreader of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Kirk was also an early investor in Rumble along with other conservative content creators, politicians and donors.
Other investors besides McCormick and Kirk have included Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential pick, Dan Bongino, a former Fox News personality who now has a show on the platform and libertarian mega-donor Peter Thiel.
According to a 2023 Pew Research survey, about three quarters of respondents who regularly get news from Rumble either identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning.
In his conversation with Kirk, Pavolovski characterized Rumble as a home for content creators banned from or demonetized on other platforms.
“Back in 2021 it was just us,” Pavlovski said. “If you had an opinion on COVID, if you had an opinion on the elections, and didn’t go with the narrative of the incumbent platforms, they were gonna shadow ban you. They were gonna demonetize you or take you out.”
The site has also made inroads with content creators from outside of the political world, striking deals with streamers focused on subjects like gaming and hip-hop. Rumble was also a streaming partner for the Republican National Convention’s presidential debate in 2023.
In the view of Lewis, the research fellow, “Rumble has quickly become the platform of choice for extremists who want to make long form video content,” Lewis said. “And that should tell you all you need to know about how willing Rumble is to appeal to this very specific subset of actors,” he contends.
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