Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is not happy with corporate CEO’s voicing their dislike of GQP voter suppression bills. He wants them to shut up but don’t stop sending him money. Cancel culture much??
by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
“I have a feeling he thinks advocating for fair access to the ballot box is the only political act CEOs shouldn’t be engaged in,” said Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
After spending much of his decades-long career raking in corporate cash and combating efforts to limit money in politics, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday suddenly claimed to be deeply concerned by the political influence of “powerful and wealthy people” who have spoken out against the Georgia state GOP’s sweeping assault on voting rights.
In a statement, the Kentucky Republican warned corporations that they will face unspecified “consequences” if they “become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order,” a far-fetched portrayal of corporate America’s largely tepid and belated response to the Georgia GOP’s new voter suppression law. [..]
“My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics,” McConnell said during a press conference in Kentucky on Monday.
Critics did not hesitate to point out the irony of McConnell’s outrage over what he called “a coordinated campaign by powerful and wealthy people” given his history of defending—and taking full advantage of—America’s corporate-friendly campaign finance system. [..]
Robert Maguire, research director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), noted late Monday that “in 2020, Mitch McConnell’s allied super PAC raised more than any other super PAC in existence—$475 million—from corporate CEOs and even corporations themselves, like Chevron, Mountaire Corp, and Koch Industries.”
“The largest donor to the super PAC, giving more than $85 million, was a dark money group that’s run by the same people out of the same office as the super PAC. It receives loads of money from CEOs and companies, with the added benefit of not disclosing them to the public,” Maguire added. “Someone should ask McConnell if he thinks these corporations and CEOs should ‘stay out of politics.'”