Progressive Activist Makes Good on $10,000 Pledge He Tweeted to Obama: ‘If You LITERALLY Drop a Mic’

Just Before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Joshua Epstein Posted an Expensive Tweet That’s Become a Good Deed

About 90 minutes before President Barack Obama took to the stage of the Washington Hilton Saturday to deliver his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech, progressive activist Joshua Epstein posted this tweet:

True to his word, Epstein is paying up.

But why did he do it in the first place?

In an email conversation with The New Civil Rights Movement, Epstein says, “I was really just thinking it would be a great way for him to say, ‘Drop dead, media! After eight years of phony scandals, false accusations, paranoid hysteria, conspiracy theories, all while playing stenographer to Republicans, Conservatives, & Fox News’ hate machine, I’m still standing, polling better than Ronald Reagan did at this point in my presidency and three times better the Congressional Republicans and the media in general! Choke on that!'”

He says he never thought President Obama would actually do it.

“It was just my fantasy. It was fun to watch how many people retweeted that dare.”

And they did. His tweet has over 100 retweets and has been favorited nearly 200 times.

“THEN. HE. DID. IT!,” Epstein says, noting he “almost had a heart attack.”

Epstein, who lives in New York, says he originally thought his $10,000 donation was contingent on President Obama dropping the mic because of his tweet.

“I meant that if he had done this because I dared him, that I would pay the $10K,” Epstein says. “So, there was a little bit of hesitation on my part about honoring the dare, at first. I wanted confirmation that he did it because of my dare. But, within 5 minutes, and after re-reading the original tweet, I realized I had made no stipulation. So, I decided I had to pay the money.”

He was hoping the Obama administration would choose a charity, but he hasn’t gotten any response.

“I sent numerous tweets asking the White House, President, and his Press Secretary to tell me which charity to donate too.  Unfortunately, I never heard back from them. So, I decided to donate the $10K to five organizations that are important to me:  1) Planned Parenthood on NY, 2) The American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFar), 3) City Harvest, 4) The Center (NYC’s LGBT Community Center), and 5) Media Matters for America.”

As proof, he’s posted this tweet:

Some thank-you’s from some of the recipients:

Impressive. 

 

Image: Screenshot via ABC/Twitter