Marcellus Wiley claims to have proof Democrats are ‘buying off’ celebrities

By his own admission, Marcellus Wiley is an “old a** conservative.”

So the former NFL star was understandably confused when he received a text message offering him $20,000, plus accommodations, to attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month.

Wiley shared the text message he received in the latest video posted to his personal YouTube page, where he’s recently broken news. And the former FS1 and ESPN host proceeded to paint the text message as proof that the Democrats are “buying off” celebrities in advance of the 2024 election.

“Immediately I said, ‘Oh, that’s why Megan Thee Stallion was out there twerking with Kamala [Harris] and them,’” Wiley said. “Wait a minute, y’all paying me like Pepsi? This ain’t no soda. This is for people’s political votes. This is to influence their lives to some degree. What?!… They sent me this?”

“I’m not cool with this. I’m not a fan of this,” Wiley contineud. “Because it’s not concerned with my beliefs. Didn’t ask me one question about that. It’s not concerned with if I’m genuine or not when I post that and go to these events. I could just be taking the money and just laughing and still voting for Trump. It’s just basically told me, ‘If you want some money, here it is. Here it is. Take this.’… it’s strictly marketing with no concern of my mental makeup or political views.”

Obviously, there’s no way to verify that the text Wiley received was sent from the Democratic Party or someone associated with it. But in the event that it was, it’s not necessarily surprising, as Democrats have been fairly open about incorporating social media influencers into their campaign efforts for the 2024 cycle.

Is paying a celebrity for his or her endorsement ethical? That’s up for debate. But such efforts don’t appear to be illegal, even if they have drawn scrutiny in recent years. And while Wiley might be understandably offended as a Republican, the idea of a political campaign being little more than a marketing effort should hardly come as a surprise to anyone on either side of the aisle.

Ultimately, the text message that Wiley shared is hardly the “gotcha” he attempted to present it as, although he’ll surely settle for the YouTube views his evidence attracts. Like most things political, one side will point to this as a smoking gun while the other will point to the other side doing the exact same thing and around and around we’ll go until November finally gets here.