Gutfeld: He lied about helping a homeless veteran
'Gutfeld!' panel reacts to New Jersey man pleading guilty to wire fraud in GoFundMe scam
So, he lied about helping a homeless vet - and now must pay a big ol' debt.
It was a kind gesture anyone could applaud – but it turned out to be a giant fraud.
This week a New Jersey man - aren't they all - pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a case that captivated the country.
Actually, it captivated a naive media who will believe anything that matches their assumptions.
But if any of you heard this story, you knew it was as fake as Kim Kardashian’s butt. Or half of her butt.
Back in 2017, Mark D’Amico and his ex-girlfriend cooked up an entire story to raise money for a homeless guy using GoFundMe -- the same site that shut down the Rittenhouse defense fund, if you like to keep track.
D’Amico claimed the down-on-his-luck veteran, Johnny Bobbitt Junior, gave them his last $20 for gas.
They then started a GoFundMe campaign to pay it forward and raise money to get the veteran off the streets.
Kind of like what Joe did for Hunter in China.
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So, of course, Media outlets picked up the story, and covered it like the heart-warming tale it seemed to be.
ABC ANCHOR: An act of kindness from a veteran is now getting national attention.
KATE MCCLURE: What if we started a GoFundMe for this guy? We set it up in the car on the way home.
ABC ANCHOR: You're going from zero, literally, to 300 and some odd thousand dollars.
JOHNNY BOBBITT: It's like winning the lottery.
MSNBC ANCHOR: Johnny Bobbitt was down on his luck. But this morning, after one random act of kindness, thousands of people are pitching in to help the homeless veteran with a heart of gold.
ABC ANCHOR: A homeless veteran, living on the streets of Philadelphia, teaching an entire nation about what it means to give.
Anyway, It turned out to be as heartwarming as a stent filled with hot bacon grease.
Yep - like the Nigerian prince who said he wanted to marry me and give me a dowry of $25 million, the story was too good to be true.
(I flew to meet him in Amsterdam, and he stood me up. Had a hell of a time getting those goats back through customs.)
Turns out they made it all up, and defrauded more than 14,000 donors out of $400,000.
Money that bankrolled vacations, a BMW, clothes and other stuff. Possibly a Hunter Biden painting or two.
Meanwhile, Bobbitt was back on the streets, and only saw a fraction of the money raised.
Turns out GoFundMe became "go f--- yourself."
Back in 2019, the ex-girlfriend and the homeless guy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their involvement, and are awaiting sentencing.
Well, he won't be homeless then, I guess.
As for D’Amico, he's facing 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and probably a job at CNN when he gets out, where pushing hoaxes is the profit model, no matter how many people it harms.
So what's the lesson here?
That if a story is too much on the nose - it's complete crap.
Back when this story came up, we did it as a "One More Thing" on "The Five," which meant, we probably didn't look at it that closely.
We were too busy combing Geraldo’s mustache.
That takes at least four hours and 12 men. Sounds like a weekend.
But we live in a media landscape where if someone wants a story to be real, they will assume it's real.
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Every story is driven by a false narrative born from a journalist who feels good telling it.
It could have been the Covington kid, the Kavanaugh hearings, the story of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Fact is, there are no facts anymore when stories are told.
The Steele dossier captivated a whole slew of cognitively biased idiots - and even as the facts kept falling apart, they clung to it like Stelter on a donut.
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They wanted so badly to believe hookers peed on Trump they were happy to poop on the truth.
And it was the American public who got stuck with the dirty laundry.
This article is adapted from Greg Gutfeld's opening monologue on the November 26, 2021 edition of "Gutfeld!"
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