This May, as House lawmakers probed and exposed the Republican Party’s deep ties to the January 6 Capitol attack, corporations and industry groups were busy shelling out millions of dollars to Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election, a new report reveals.
Fortune 500 companies and trade associations gave over $1.9 million to election objectors in just one month, Accountable.US found in a report released Thursday. Donations came from corporations like Boeing, Exxon, Anthem, Lockheed Martin, and a long list of other companies, many of which gave tens of thousands of dollars to the group of lawmakers. This brings the total amount of donations to election objectors between the attack last year and May to over $18 million.
Nine companies and trade groups, including Kraft, Metlife and State Farm, made donations to election objectors in May for the first time since the attack, the report found, totaling $40,500. Kraft and State Farm had both made pledges to stop donating to election objectors or stop federal political donations altogether after the attack.
Another analysis done last month by Accountable.US found that corporate groups have given at least $825,653 to people who have been subpoenaed or requested for interviews by the committee since January 6, 2021, including politicians like Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-California) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who have refused to comply with subpoenas.
Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig condemned the companies for aiding the lawmakers who wanted to delegitimize the votes of tens of millions of Americans.
“The more the January 6th Committee details how close we came to losing our democracy, the more corporations owe an explanation to their customers as to why they keep funding those in Congress who’ve refused to comply with the Committee’s requests, begged for pardons, and tried to finish what the insurrectionists started by voting to throw out the 2020 election results,” Herrig said.
“Companies that claim to support democracy yet fail to align their political spending with their stated values need to make it clear to the public that they value something much more — holding political influence over lawmakers no matter how dangerous their views,” he continued.
About 250 companies had pledged to stop giving to the 147 lawmakers who voted to overturn the election in the wake of January 6, but the majority of these companies have broken those pledges less than 18 months later — showing that, for many, these pledges were a mere publicity stunt. According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), only 85 companies had held to those pledges as of May.
The generous donations made in May came as the January 6 committee was revealing that many members of the Republican Party had deep ties to the attack and Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election.
In late May, the committee revealed that at least one Republican, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia), had given a tour of the Capitol building the day before the attack, despite his claims that he didn’t do so. The committee later released video evidence that one of the people on the tour was making threats against prominent Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).
Last month, the committee also unveiled several bombshells showing Republican politicians’ involvement in the attack, including the names of several Republicans who asked for pardons for their roles in the effort to overturn the election, like Representatives Mo Brooks (R-Alabama), Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia).
This post was originally published on Latest - Truthout.
