Grand Canyon Times

Earlier this month, Citizens United Productions released a new film titled "Rigged: The Zuckerberg Funded Plot to Defeat Donald Trump" that tells the story of how the Facebook CEO's charitable donations of nearly $400 million were aimed at defeating President Donald Trump.

According to the organization's website, some of the details highlighted in the 40-minute documentary have already put pressure on Mark Zuckerberg to stop funding elections. Reportedly, the nonprofit group that directed much of the nearly $400 million Zuckerberg spent in the 2020 election said it won’t do it again in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections.

“This is exactly what we were trying to achieve with our film – to shine a light on what Mark Zuckerberg did to fund voter turnout operations to elect Joe Biden by spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Democrat areas in get-out-the-vote efforts,” Citizens United President David Bossie said, according to the CUP website. “The Zuckerberg money turned what should be neutral government offices into ground game field offices, effectively, for the Biden campaign. It’s wrong for any private individual to undermine the independence of elections offices, and the announcement that it will stop is an admission that we’re right.”

The announcement that Zuckerberg will not be funding a repeat performance when it comes to such giving this year was first reported by the Associated Press and Daily Mail, with critics of his original actions arguing it strikes a major blow for free and fair elections, according to the CUP website.

It’s been reported much of Zuckerberg’s $400 million investment wound up in the hands of organizations committed to Joe Biden. Throughout the documentary, Citizens United filmmakers highlight what they see as the plot “orchestrated by liberal operatives who used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse for the private funding of government elections offices with the intent to drive voter turnout for Democrat candidate Joe Biden.”

Of the so-called “Zuck Bucks” that were doled out in 2020, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), an Illinois-based center-left election reform advocacy group, received $328 million. Of its newfound largesse, CTCL gave $5.1 million to the state of Arizona, with the tax filings showing Maricopa, Pima, Apache and Coconino counties, all areas carried by Biden, received nearly 76 percent of the grants.

PolitiFact reported independent election experts agree it’s best for the government to pay for expenses associated with elections, as opposed to the private sector. In addition, a recent national survey by Rasmussen Reports finds 70 percent of likely U.S. voters believe it was a bad thing for American democracy for Zuckerberg to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2020 presidential election in hopes of influencing the outcome.

Since the 2020 election, 11 GOP-controlled states – Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas – have moved to ban private funding for elections, with Alabama, Alaska, Kentucky, Missouri, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia all also considering similar changes.

Over the last 18 years, Citizens United Productions has produced 26 other documentary films, including the award-winning "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny" and "Nine Days That Changed The World," hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich.

The "Rigged" film premiered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in April 5 in Palm Beach, Fla.