Impeachment news falls flat online

How the GOP is trying to build support for impeaching Biden online, and what Democrats are doing about it

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Sep 15, 2023

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On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced that he would direct Congressional committees to open an “impeachment inquiry” into President Biden... but it remains unclear what exactly they’re impeaching him for.

Regardless of the lack of cause, impeachments have thus far been rare in American politics, and as such, the mainstream media covered the news extensively. However, we found that online interest and engagement around the impeachment news this week was very limited - we’ll break that down and more in this week’s FWIW. But first…

By the numbers

FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $7.5 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:

Koch Brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity has been a top-spending political advertiser on Facebook and Instagram in the past week, spending heavily on ads trashing “Bidenomics” and highlighting high consumer prices due to inflation. The group is specifically targeting voters in PA, NC, MI, OH, TX, and AZ.

These ads come as the White House is attempting to push its own “Bidenomics” message and rebrand Republicans’ own “MAGAnomics” messaging as out of touch.

Along those lines, the group’s sister organization, AFP Action, continues to run ads asserting that if Republicans nominate Donald Trump it will mean four more years of Joe Biden. Those ads don’t seem to be having much of an impact as Trump’s GOP primary polling lead remains steady.

“AI is coming for us all…” That’s the message being advertised by a new campaign from the Project Liberty Action Network last week. The group spent around $75,000 running video ads on Facebook and Instagram in support of online privacy and big tech regulation.

Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $1.4 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:

Conservative content farm PragerU was back among the top political ad spenders on YouTube last week, pushing out conservative “educational” videos like this one that praises Darren Wilson, the policeman who shot and killed 18-year-old, unarmed Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014:

…and on Snapchat, political campaigns and organizations in the United States have spent around $1.6 million on advertising in 2023. Here are the top ten spenders YTD:

Your 2024 digital dispatch

FWIW, here’s how much money the 2024 presidential candidates have spent on Facebook + Google ads to date (1/1 - 9/9):

…and here’s how weekly digital ad spending compares between the Trump and Biden campaigns:

While Team DeSantis is paying hand over foot into ads to try and boost Ron’s chances, Nikki Haley and Mike Pence have been rising in polls without spending much at all

Vivek Ramaswamy had dinner with Jake Paul (a controversial former YouTuber and boxer) last week, who convinced him that he should be on TikTok

From around the internet:

Katie Harbath published a good piece looking at how and where big tech platforms are leaning into politics - from investments in election integrity and content moderation to partnerships and roundtables.

This isn't a digital story, but Mitt Romney announced he isn’t running for re-election and has been spilling the tea for months with McKay Coppins over the sad state of his Republican colleagues: "A very large portion of my party really doesn't believe in the Constitution."

According to a new poll by AXIOS and Morning Consult, half of Americans expect misinformation spread by AI to impact who wins the 2024 election.