Big biz withholds cash, while Thompson takes aim at Pence, Hannity
By Keith Reed
Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., speaks with the media after the House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 27, 2021.Photo: Jose Luis Magana (AP)
Thursday marks a year since thousands of losers stormed the U.S. Capitol, trying to keep an even bigger loser in office. They failed, despite doing about 150 million times more damage than it would have taken for every cop in DC to open fire had the crowd been mostly Black. Some of the insurrectionists are sitting in jail now, though not nearly enough have been tracked down and tried and sent there. Their hero, exiled from DC in shame, is free to spend his post-presidency at his own posh Florida resort.
But while Trump is gone–for now–and as more of his followers get carted off to jail, 147 of his biggest co-conspirators in an attempt to hijack an election are still sitting members of Congress. All of them are Republican elected officials and all of them voted against certifying a duly-won election of the American presidency. And now, seven of the biggest companies in the country are cutting off their funding.
The website Popular Information dialed up almost 200 companies to find out if they stuck to their word about no longer campaign contributions to the sitting lawmakers who tried to undermine the peaceful transfer of power. Here’s what they found.
Popular Information contacted 183 companies and asked if their corporate PACs would suspend donations to the 147 Republican objectors in 2022. There are seven companies that have explicitly pledged to withhold PAC funding to the Republican objectors in 2022:
Airbnb: Airbnb told Popular Information it would not donate to the Republican objectors in 2022.
BASF: “BASF is committed to staying with our approach for the remainder of the 2022 election cycle.”
Eversource Energy: “[W]e intend to uphold that pledge.”
Lyft: “Yes, we plan to uphold this pledge.”
Microsoft: “[W]e are committed to our pledge”
Dow: “This suspension will remain in place for a period of one election cycle (two years for House members; up to six years for Senators), which specifically includes contributions to the candidate’s reelection committee and their affiliated PACs. Dow is committed to the principles of democracy and the peaceful transfer of power.”
American Express: Last year, American Express told Popular Information that its PAC would never donate to the 147 Republican objectors again.
79 big firms in total kept the commitment they made a year ago, but another 58 haven’t, according to Popular Info.
In the meantime, Rep. Bennie Thompson’s Jan. 6 committee wants to know what Trump’s other closest buddies knew and when they knew it. CNN reported on Tuesday that Thompson wants former VP Mike Pence and Sean Hannity of Fox News to testify.
From CNN
The idea that the former vice president would voluntarily throw himself back into the controversy by testifying appears far-fetched, however. He has painstakingly spent the last year putting space between himself and the infamy of January 6 as he struggles to keep himself viable for a possible future Republican presidential campaign. Still, various Pence aides have begun engaging with the committee, including his former chief of staff Marc Short, whom CNN reported last month is cooperating.
Thompson spoke to CNN moments after the committee fired off another request for cooperation, calling on Hannity, a prime-time Fox News opinion star, to discuss dozens of texts it says he sent to Trump and the President’s team in the days surrounding January 6. The messages once again lay bare the propagandistic synergy between the conservative network and the Trump White House. It also suggests that the panel is willing to go after the most high-profile witnesses and brave significant political controversy in its quest to tell the story of January 6.
Controversy, maybe. But how about full accountability?
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