In our ongoing effort at Twitchy to tell you ‘who said what’, we’ve been working to unravel the huge Twitter controversy involving Babylon Bee CEO, Seth Dillon, and the employee he fired, Gavin Wax.
The entire episode turned into a 4-alarm dumpster fire, fueled by political primary gasoline. It culminated Saturday evening in a Twitter Space attended by over 150,000 users, which included attendees like Seth Dillon, Seb Gorka, Rudy Giuliani (listener), and Kayleigh McEnany (listener). In other words, a lot of influential people were interested.
We’ll attempt to provide the pertinent details below, but the quick summary is this: Seth Dillon fired employee Gavin Wax, apparently by tweet, in response to a Twitter spat between Wax and Christina Pushaw, rapid response director of the DeSantis 2024 campaign. Dillon claims there was a pattern of behavior leading up to this event, while many in the Trump camp are accusing Seth Dillon of ousting Gavin Wax because Wax is an ardent Trump supporter and the Babylon Bee is being paid by the DeSantis campaign.
That’s the 411. Let’s see what everyone’s saying and you can decide what holds up and what doesn’t.
For MAGA:
Whenever a DeSimp blows up your mentions, post something to the effect of this:
“Please publicly declare you aren’t being paid by the DeSantis campaign or a DeSantis aligned PAC & you do not receive talking points from the DeSantis campaign or a DeSantis aligned PAC.”
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) May 26, 2023
This tweet appears to be the genesis of the conflagration, from what we can determine.
Perhaps you’ve seen the digital trench warfare taking place on Twitter between the Trump and DeSantis camps. A common talking point from one side or the other is ‘they’re being paid to say these things’. In other words, question their judgement because they’re paid shills.
#2
If people like @MaxNordau respond with "Ron DeSantis doesn't pay me," or something to that effect ask them to clarify if the campaign or affiliated PACs pay them. https://t.co/Tn5FQPdIVG
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) May 26, 2023
Twitter user Max Nordau is a die-hard DeSantis supporter who engages regularly in heated battles with similarly die-hard Trump supporters, such as Gavin Wax apparently.
Gavin Mario Wax used to receive a paycheck that was financed by Ho Wan Kwok, also known as Miles Guo.
Ask him about it. https://t.co/1BseuoMkn7 pic.twitter.com/wTXfng0R9H
— Max, Florida Expert (@MaxNordau) May 26, 2023
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It was at this point that the Max-Wax confrontation appears to have melted down into a cataclysmic clash.
These are the types of snipes that are common in day-to-day Twitter battles.
To be fair, Max Nordau said in the Twitter Space that he is not paid by the DeSantis campaign and does not work for them – the accusation that purportedly caused Nordau to respond with the swipe about Gavin’s GETTR employment, insinuating that Gavin’s judgment should be questioned because he worked for a guy charged with a crime.
Insinuating that Gavin Wax’s reputation was marred in any way because a former employer was charged with fraud is not fair either. Lots of people work for bosses who end up being accused of doing wrong things.
Yeah I worked at GETTR. It’s on my LinkedIn. So what?
Am I responsible for the actions of a former employer? Someone I met maybe 5 times in my whole life.
Are you trying to accuse me of something you schmuck? https://t.co/ocQOnova4E
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) May 26, 2023
So why was this the flash point?
Christina Pushaw liked Max Nordau’s tweet. Yes, that’s how touchy things are in GOP primary Twitter right now.
It was the liked tweet heard ’round the political Twittersphere, triggering this tweet by Gavin Wax:
Hey @ChristinaPushaw why did you like this Tweet?
Is there something wrong with the fact that I worked at GETTR?
Between arguing with 16 year olds and now this…lowly losers. https://t.co/ocQOnova4E
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) May 26, 2023
The 16-year-old was apparently in reference to an account named GOP Josh, a kid who joined the salty back-and-forth by making fun of Pushaw’s physical appearance.
Hey, at least the 16-year-old has the excuse of immaturity for taking part in some of the nonsense that has been playing out recently. Still, he needs better guidance.
Gavin waxed poetic with this follow-up tweet.
Following this tweet, the battle between Gavin Wax and others continued.
- Gavin again called out Pushaw and Nordau for the GETTR swipe.
- He retweeted a tweet claiming Christina Pushaw was ‘acting as a foreign agent for Ukraine’.
- Called another tweeter, who was harassing him, short and ugly and agreed to meet him in a celebrity boxing match (initiated by the other user).
- Engaged in a tweet-for-tat with David Reaboi who was digging in on the GETTR attack, insisting it was a sign of bad judgment, resulting in Wax calling him a closeted gay man.
- Insulted Jenna Ellis’s looks, calling her an ‘overweight thrice (?) Divorcee’ in response to Ellis giving him grief, claiming Pushaw ‘broke him’.
It was UGLY. Again, this type of thing has not been uncommon recently on Twitter as blood boils over the primary, but the context is important to understand the later claims made by Seth Dillon.
At this point, Seth Dillon took notice and things went from ugly to worse.
What's yours?
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) May 26, 2023
Keep in mind that Gavin Wax was serving as the VP of Marketing for The Babylon Bee at this point, and Dillon was clearly upset with the tweet to Pushaw.
Tweeting like this with the Bee in your bio doesn't work for me.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) May 26, 2023
Dillon made it clear he objected to Gavin having The Babylon Bee in his Twitter bio while he was ‘tweeting like this’.
Being accused of things that are false (and criminal) doesn’t work for me. https://t.co/8zo4CLryd7
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) May 26, 2023
Gavin shot back, once again referring to the accusation that he was somehow guilty because a former boss was charged with fraud.
Depending on their view of the situations, people have described this as ‘insubordination’ by Wax to his employer or a perfectly fine response to a boss who was behaving unprofessionally.
Unsurprisingly, those viewpoints are mostly divided along lines of support for one candidate or another. LOL.
You can take the Bee out of your bio now.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) May 26, 2023
For anyone watching this entire thing play out, it was pretty clear the correct translation was ‘You’re fired!’
It wasn’t quite clear that the firing was official yet because, as of a couple hours later, Gavin did not sound like anything was final. He also cited several of the people involved in the exchanges described above.
It I lose my job for defending the greatest President of my generation and for defending myself then so be it
I don’t cave to leftwing cancel culture and I won’t cave to right wing cancel culture from @ChristinaPushaw @JennaEllisEsq and @davereaboi.
— Gavin Mario Wax 🇺🇸 🗽🍊 (@GavinWax) May 26, 2023
It was at this point that the controversy blew wide open with many in the Trump camp believing Seth Dillon was responding in this way because Gavin Wax is a Trump supporter and was tweeting this way at a DeSantis staffer.
This was the history, as best as we can piece it together, that resulted in about a day of additional infighting over Seth Dillon’s actions and support for or against it.
Many Twitter users supported Gavin.
We all stand with @GavinWax https://t.co/3sMo4lVEp0
— Paul Ingrassia (@PaulIngrassia) May 26, 2023
I STAND WITH @GavinWax!
Meatball's staff is trying to get him fired from his job for not agreeing with them & defending himself against defamatory attacks.
Make sure you're following Gavin, he's one of the best in the movement! (Also, #BoycottTheBee!)
— GOP Josh 🇺🇸 (@GOPJosh20) May 26, 2023
Go Waxy !
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) May 27, 2023
You are trying to deflect from your hypocrisy.
Were you hired by the DeSantis camp to write jokes for them? https://t.co/FUMR1aqrjW pic.twitter.com/hWhpmCBCs0
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 27, 2023
There was also plenty of support for Seth Dillon.
when you try to dunk on your boss on Twitter and get fired pic.twitter.com/oZraIKYJNW
— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) May 27, 2023
Okay, that one’s just a wee bit biased.
.@GavinWax: "Seth fired me for liking Trump."@SethDillon: pic.twitter.com/nHezjnIJqM
— Abby Libby (@abbythelibb_) May 27, 2023
Hey @SethDillon you hiring?
— Federalist Musket🇺🇸 (@Patriot_Musket) May 27, 2023
.@SethDillon CEO of the Babylon Bee fired an insubordinate employee who was representing the brand in a detrimental way.
Just like every other CEO on the planet would have done in the same situation.
That’s it. That’s the story. Nothing political about it.
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) May 27, 2023
I don’t think Seth Dillon is any camp other than Camp Bee. He obviously felt your behavior was unbecoming of Camp Bee. https://t.co/SUYEo3LX1W
— Anna James Zeigler (@ajzeigler) May 27, 2023
This was the situation setting the stage for the Twitter Space named ‘TRUMP vs. DESANTIS WAR | Babylon Bee Censorship? | w/ CEO @SethDillion’.
🚨 We have Babylon Bee CEO @SethDillon LIVE on our Space defending himself for firing Bee Marketing VP @GavinWax for his tweets.
Join in!
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 27, 2023
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 27, 2023
We have to say, this was definitely a case of Dillon and the lion’s den … at least from Seth Dillon’s perspective. The vast majority of prominent speakers were associated with the Trump camp in various ways from former administration staff members to online ‘influencers’.
Seth Dillon is taking on a space with 10/1 MAGA influencers as speakers and owning it. He's really good at this.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) May 27, 2023
Seth Dillon did comport himself well, in this editor’s opinion. He calmly answered the questions and accusations presented to him, some with quite a bit of emotion.
Our general takeaway from Dillon’s answers is that he claims to have fired Gavin Wax not for the profanity in the tweet, Wax’s support for Trump, or because Seth Dillon is a DeSantis supporter or paid by the DeSantis campaign. Instead, he claimed there was a pattern of behavior by Wax, amounting to spending a large portion of his day tweeting nasty things at people while being paid by The Babylon Bee and he no longer wanted him associated with his company.
The exchange in question and some of the context we provided above, seemed to be the tipping point for Dillon, however, for the altercation to have taken place so publicly.
He also explained that the charges of being paid by DeSantis are using photos that crop out the 2021 date and relate to DeSantis’s campaign for governor and have to do with ad buys and use of mailing lists (we don’t claim to understand all that but it seems rather standard). He also indicated that campaigns pay them to write jokes for speeches and such, but they have never, and would never, write satire disparaging a particular candidate at the request of another candidate.
Listening to @SethDillon take on the angry mob in that space? Awesome. Just awesome. And his points about a forced dichotomy by some on the Right? Nailed it.
We need more of that. 🇺🇸❤️
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) May 27, 2023
Several participants were quite civil, despite not hearing the answers from Seth Dillon that they wanted to hear. A few others … not so much.
At one point, Laura Loomer joined the conversation just as Dillon’s connection dropped after he said no one should listen to anything Laura Loomer says. This prompted an immediate accusation that Dillon was fleeing Loomer’s presence, who launched into an attack about Dillon not ‘having the balls’ to face her. She then questioned if Seth Dillon was, in essence, scamming his audience by running a Christian satire site even though he is Jewish. (Loomer is also Jewish.)
You could hear moderator Nick Sortor attempting to shut her down on that particular attack, to the protests of Loomer and Tara Bull, but Dillon rejoined quickly after and was given a chance to respond.
It wasn’t the first time he had heard the accusation, as it had been floating around the Twittersphere throughout the day, and he had already responded.
I did not cease having Ashkenazi blood when I put my faith in Jesus Christ (also a Jew). https://t.co/cDCQOFUV5K
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) May 27, 2023
This did give Dillon the opportunity to clearly state that he was a Christian:
‘I believe that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins, and rose from the dead, and paid the price for them that we can’t pay ourselves. And, for that reason, I have saving faith in Jesus Christ as my savior.’
For those who are not Christians, this is what those of us who are Christians expect to hear from other Christians.
Gavin Wax was also invited to the Twitter Space, but never showed. He was apparently being hired by Raheem Kassam.
.@SethDillon fires people publicly, and whines.
I hire people publicly, with wine! pic.twitter.com/yybqvK0UKF
— Raheem. (@RaheemKassam) May 27, 2023
The next day, the controversy continued in multiple other Twitter Spaces, including one joined by none other than Congressman George Santos.
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 28, 2023
This space was, again, mostly supporters of President Trump and a few DeSantis supporters, including Max Nordau. Neither Seth Dillon nor Gavin Wax were involved.
The general consensus remained that the Trump supporters believed the DeSantis campaign played a role in the firing of Gavin Wax, clearly unconvinced by Seth Dillon’s comments the day before.
For his part, George Santos stressed that he believed the fight was largely a waste of energy that could be better spent pushing their candidates in a positive way and eventually focused on defeating Democrats. Sounds good to us.
There was also a general consensus among the Trump team that Seth Dillon, at a minimum, behaved quite unprofessionally by firing an employee via tweet.
George Soros seemed to find the idea that he believed Gavin Wax was the first person to be fired via Twitter quite hilarious.
We believe that distinction actually belongs to Rex Tillerson. LOL.
Bad news, folks, the Babylon Bee has gone WOKE pic.twitter.com/pWPWhGBAyq
— Eyes on the Right (@EyesOnTheRight) May 30, 2023
So, were are we now?
The Babylon Bee, the satire site held off Twitter for 8 months for refusing to bend the knee to trans activists within Twitter, an event that likely triggered Elon Musk’s purchase of the platform … is woke. This editor finds this all to be a bit absurd.
And did you hear? The Babylon Bee is woke trash now
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) May 31, 2023
As for who to believe in this entire mess? That is up to you to decide. We’ve attempted to provide the context, the accusations levied against Seth Dillon, and the defense he offered in response.
We have a hunch, in this current climate, people will tend to believe what they want to believe.
We’ll be here to tell you what they’re saying.
***
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