Meet the magician who says he’s behind the fake Biden robocall: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the on the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

Today’s edition features exclusive reporting from senior politics reporter Alex Seitz-Wald on a magician who says a Democratic operative paid him to use artificial intelligence to impersonate President Joe Biden for a robocall. Plus, “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker breaks down the political whiplash Republicans experienced on IVF this week.

Meet the magician who says he’s behind the fake Biden robocall

By Alex Seitz-Wald

When a nomadic magician emails and says he utilized artificial intelligence to create the audio that was used in a robocall trying to discourage Joe Biden’s supporters from voting in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, what do you do? Get on the phone.

That’s how Paul Carpenter’s story came to my attention.

 Carpenter kept receipts. And text messages. And the audio file used in the call. And he says that all amounts to proof that he was hired by a Democratic political operative named Steve Kramer who has worked for Dean Phillips’ presidential campaign this cycle.

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Carpenter has led a mostly peripatetic existence for his adult life, traveling to, he says, 24 countries and making money through performances and odd jobs, staying with friends or in cheap short-term lodgings.

He has never held a full-time job for long, he says, due to a combination of mental health issues, conflicts with bosses, and a lifestyle choice to never be tied down or “owned” by anyone.

After a diagnosis with bipolar disorder, he adopted a Chihuahua-dachshund mix named Moose whom he had certified as a service animal. The dog travels with him everywhere, including on his motorcycle, wearing little dog goggles.

A practicing Jew, Carpenter says he made aliyah to Israel, where he lived for four years and obtained Israeli citizenship, which came with a small stipend.

Now he can add “AI creator” and “accidental political scandal-maker” to his biography. 

Read the full story here →

The Republican whiplash on IVF

Analysis by Kristen Welker

Republicans and anti-abortion advocates fought for half a century to overturn Roe v. Wade, but many GOP strategists have privately acknowledged that they had no unified plan or message for dealing with the political, legal and personal aftermath.

That reality was on full display this week in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court decision finding that embryos created through in vitro fertilization are considered children. After Republicans ranging from presidential candidate Nikki Haley to Sen. Tommy Tuberville struggled for days to offer a unified response to the ruling, members of the party suddenly rushed to make clear Friday they supported IVF.

A memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, obtained by NBC News, urged candidates to “align with the public’s overwhelming support for IVF and fertility treatments.” That quickly led to a flood of GOP Senate hopefuls in key races — like Arizona’s Kari Lake, Montana’s Tim Sheehy and Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick — to publicly express their opposition to IVF restrictions.

And to cap it off, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump finally weighed in: “I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby,” he posted on Truth Social. The former president also called on the Alabama Legislature to “find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF.”

The question now for Republicans is this: How many more of these moments will there be between now and the November election? With the Roe status quo gone, many different reproductive health issues are up in the air — including the number of weeks when abortion is legal, the fate of abortion pills and medicated abortion, and now even IVF treatments.

The issue is a political landmine, because Democrats plan to use reproductive rights as a central part of their messaging for the 2024 elections.

It’s a legal landmine, because the Alabama ruling means people could theoretically be sued for destroying an embryo, even those discarded for genetic abnormalities.

And it’s a personal landmine, due to all the women and families who have used IVF or other fertility treatments to expand their families. (According to the Pew Research Center, 10% of American women ages 15 to 44 have received some form of fertility service, and 1.1% of all women of that age group have received artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization.)

The conservative dilemma here: How do you weigh life, even at the embryonic level, with protecting families who use the IVF practice? In a post-Roe landscape, it’s one that isn’t going away anytime soon.

That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com.

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