Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday evening had on his show "Dom Tullipso," the self-proclaimed "director of operations" of Demand Protest, a fake protesters-for-hire website aiming to besmirch real left-wing protesters.
Right out of the gate, Carlson called Demand Protest "a sham." He went on: "Your company isn’t real, your website is fake, the claims you have made are lies, this is a hoax. Let me start at the beginning, however, with your name, Dom Tullipso, which is not your real name. It’s a fake name, we ran you through law enforcement-level background checks and that name does not exist. So let’s start out with the truth. Tell me what your real name is."
"Tullipso" wouldn't admit that Demand Protest was a hoax, even after Carlson grilled him on the company's financial specs: "You pay a retainer to 1,817 operatives every month. Now if that were actually true, that’s $54 million you’re spending just on retainers. It’s another $30 million a year if you’re paying them for six hours a week work. That’s demonstrably . . . silly."
"Tullipso" bumped up the figure to $80 million annually.
"We are greatly, greatly supportive of national treasures such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Peyton Manning, and we really support their efforts to really get the truth out there," "Tullipso" added, jokingly confusing retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning with government whistleblower Chelsea Manning, whose 35-year sentence President Obama recently commuted.
Asked if he "actually thought" he'd be able to pull one over on Carlson and Fox News, "Tullipso" concluded, "God bless you for fact-checking, even if you did it when you were on the air."
"We are strategists mobilizing millennials across the globe with seeded audiences and desirable messages," Demand Protest says on its website. "With absolute discretion a top priority, our operatives create convincing scenes that become the building blocks of massive movements. When you need the appearance of outrage, we are able to deliver it at scale while keeping your reputation intact."
Presumably in an effort to undermine Hillary Clinton's most recent unsuccessful run for president, the website also features a testimonial from the "campaign chair" of an "unnamed 2016 presidential campaign."
As Jezebel found, Demand Protest's website went live on December 2, 2016, long after Election Day. Several outlets have tried unsuccessfully to reach representatives through the phone number listed on the website.
When I tried the number — which has a San Francisco area code — I got an amateurish automated voice message.
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