Thread by @anotheracronym

#ICYMI - Donald Trump was impeached 🍑this week. He’s also the first President to be impeached since the adoption of social media.

For the last issue of 🤯#FWIW this year, we take one final look at how impeachment is playing and has played online.
anotheracronym.org/newsletter/fwi…

Impeach-boi @realDonaldTrump's re-election campaign has now spent over $31.6 million on Facebook + Google ads since the 2018 midterms. His campaign increased spending a bit last week as the impeachment vote neared. 🍑

Last week, Bloomberg was again the top spender on Facebook + Google, but it is notable that @BernieSanders ramped up his spending on both platforms, dropping over half a million dollars across a seven-day period.

Here’s how much each candidate spent online last week:

We noticed Sanders has been running these Nevada-specific video ads on Facebook, and in the past month has outspent all of the other leading candidates in that state by a yugggge margin (nearly 5X!).

The Trump impeachment 🍑 is the first impeachment to have played out online – on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Here’s our biggest takes from the impeachment battle over the past two months:

1️⃣ A lot of money has been spent online… but not that much 😫

We can safely estimate that the top 25 pro and anti-impeachment spenders on Facebook have collectively spent over $5.3 million since news of the initial inquiry broke in September.

Conservative groups have tried to go on offense, but are reluctant to remind Americans that their president is a criminal.

On the Left, organizations and campaigns have struggled to find a strong offensive frame on this issue, since the odds of removal by the Senate are slim.

2️⃣Trump was ready to make some money

The President has spent at least $1.5 million – on fundraising ads mentioning impeachment. His team made sure to own communication to their base and keep them in line while they played defense against the impeachment inquiry.

3️⃣GOP pressure campaigns didn’t work 🆘

Despite groups like @AAN + @AmericaFirstPol funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into ads targeting vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress, only one actual Democrat switched sides to vote against impeachment…Jeff Van Drew.

4️⃣ Crickets on the Senate side

Vulnerable Senators + swing-state Senate campaigns have largely been spared the impeachment noise. There have been a few notable exceptions, though…

5️⃣ Presidential contenders want to change the channel

During last night’s debate, Democratic presidential candidates seemed eager to talk about issues other than impeachment. Steyer + Warren’s campaigns have consistently run ads on Facebook to rally their base for impeachment.

Buttigieg has largely continued to stay away. One recent Buttigieg ad on Facebook captures the general feeling of many of these presidential campaigns well: a direct acknowledgment of the need to impeach, and a quick pivot to other issues voters will care about next November:

That’s it for #FWIW. View our past issues + sign up for next week’s here ⬇️
anotheracronym.org/fwiw/