Koch network pledges to ‘weigh heavy’ lawmakers’ actions in riots

Other GOP megadonors decline chance to defend Trump or his allies who challenged the election results.

The powerful Koch political network, funders of the Tea Party, will “weigh heavy” the actions of members of Congress in the days leading up to and after last week’s siege of the Capitol when considering future donations, in a sign that the GOP’s megadonor class is uncomfortable with the party’s recent actions.

In a statement to POLITICO, the Koch network said it will take last week’s events seriously when deciding where to put its millions of dollars in spending next election cycle.

“Lawmakers’ actions leading up to and during last week’s insurrection will weigh heavy in our evaluation of future support. And we will continue to look for ways to support those policymakers who reject the politics of division and work together to move our country forward,” said Emily Seidel, CEO of Americans for Prosperity and senior adviser to AFP Action, the group’s super PAC. Continue reading.

Trump’s Secretary of State pick is ‘the number 1 all time recipient of KOCH Industries $$$’

The following article by Joe Romm was posted on the ThinkProgress website March 13, 2018:

Mike Pompeo is, of course, a climate science denier and opponent of the Paris climate deal.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been chosen by Trump to be the next Secretary of State. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has officially fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and intends to nominate current CIA director Mike Pompeo in his place.

Tillerson was the former CEO of ExxonMobil, which for decades was the number one funder of climate science disinformation until they were surpassed by the Koch brothers starting in 2005. But before Pompeo became CIA Director in 2017, he had for six years been a GOP House member from Kansas — and “the #1 all time recipient of #KOCH Industries $$$,” as the nonprofit research group OpenSecrets.org tweeted at the time: Continue reading “Trump’s Secretary of State pick is ‘the number 1 all time recipient of KOCH Industries $$$’”