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Major GOP donors condemn lawmakers who incited Washington violence

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CloseAfter a mob of President ’s supporters broke into the Capitol building Wednesday, some top Republican donors condemned the violent mob and the lawmakers who incited them.&nbsp;&nbsp;Attackers entered the Capitol building around 2 p.m., shouting pro-Trump slogans and entering the offices of several Democratic lawmakers. Four people died amid the turmoil. Lawmakers, who were actively debating the certification of President-elect ’s electoral college win when the building was breached, were hurriedly evacuated or told to shelter in place.In the midst of the chaos and violence, a collection of corporate executives and trade organizations with ties to the Republican party denounced the violence.A PAC run by the , traditionally a steady donor to GOP candidates that spent almost last year, contributed $172,500 to Republican congressional candidates in the 2020 election cycle. On Wednesday, the trade group’s President and CEO Jay Timmons the rioters, Trump and Republicans who “cheered on” the president’s efforts to subvert democracy. Timmons also called on lawmakers to remove Trump from office.&nbsp;&nbsp;“Vice President , who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy,” Timmons said.&nbsp;The 25th Amendment’s fourth section gives the vice president, in conjunction with either the cabinet or an ad hoc body convened by Congress, the from office. Some members of Trump’s cabinet are reportedly considering invoking the amendment in the coming days, according to .&nbsp;The , another organization that consistently spends to help elect conservatives, spent more than $5.5 million boosting Republican candidates this cycle through contributions and TV ads. In a statement released earlier this week, CEO Thomas Donohue acknowledged Biden’s electoral victory. On Wednesday, Donohue issued another , rebuking the violence and destruction in Washington, D.C., and calling on Congress to certify Biden’s win as soon as possible.&nbsp;“The Congress of the United States must gather again this evening to conclude their Constitutional responsibility to accept the report of the Electoral College,” Donohue said.&nbsp;The , whose PAC donated $174,500 to Republican congressional candidates this year, joined in, calling Wednesday’s mob violence a “horrible and dangerous affront to democracy in our nation.”The CEO of the , Michael Sommers, gave $7,200 to Trump’s campaign committee and leadership PAC this election cycle. On Wednesday, he that the mob violence in Washington “has no place in America.” His organization’s PAC, like many others in the , gives consistently to Republican candidates.&nbsp;Some Wall Street executives also condemned the rioters. CEO gave more than in political contributions this year, almost entirely to Republican candidates or PACs. Schwarzman was once an adviser and confidant to Trump, and reportedly defended the president’s legal challenges of the election on a call with other executives in late November.&nbsp;“The insurrection that followed the President’s remarks today is appalling and an affront to the democratic values we hold dear as Americans,” Schwarzman .&nbsp;JPMorgan Chase CEO and CitiBank’s both made statements on Twitter decrying the attack on the Capitol. On Jan. 4, two days prior to the invasion of the Capitol, executives at almost 200 major American companies including , , and signed a calling on members of Congress to certify Biden’s election and assure a smooth transfer of presidential power.&nbsp;In a late-night session after police and national guard troops cleared the capitol building, Congress successfully the election. Although establishment Republicans including Senate Majority Leader (R-Ky.) urged their colleagues to acknowledge Biden’s win, 138 Republicans in the House and eight in the Senate voted in favor of objections to the certification in an attempt to delay the final vote.Six senators voted to overturn the election results in Arizona: Sens. (R-Tex.) (R-Mo.), (R-Miss.), (R-La.), (R-Kan.) and (R-Ala.).&nbsp;Cruz, Hawley, Hyde-Smith, Marshall, Tuberville, Sen. (R-Wyo.) and Sen. (R-Fla.) objected to certifying the votes in Pennsylvania.Some commentators are drawing a connection between those lawmakers and Wednesday’s violence. The editorial board of Kansas City Star, a daily newspaper from Hawley’s home state, Missouri’s junior senator for his role in inciting the attack.&nbsp;“Hawley’s actions in the last week had such [an] impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed,” the editorial board wrote.&nbsp;On Wednesday morning, hours before the insurrection began, investors and CEOs joined Yale School of Management professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld on a call to discuss the possibility of withholding financial support from politicians who planned to vote against certification, according to . Cruz and Hawley are widely considered to be in the 2024 presidential election.Jeffrey Stein, an economics reporter for the Washington Post, Thursday that some K Street lobbyists are speculating that the corporate donors to the House Republicans who voted against the election’s results could face “meaningful consumer blowback.”A recent by the anti-Trump super PAC took the lawmakers to task, accusing them — and their donors — of supporting a “new Jim Crow caucus.”&nbsp;“Major American companies … donated to help elect these senators, who are trying to take away votes from African Americans,” the ad said. “Is this what you support, corporate America? Are these your values?”Individuals affiliated with two of the corporations singled out by the Lincoln Project, and , spent tens of thousands of dollars in support of Hawley, the first senator to declare his intention to of the election. AT&amp;T’s corporate PAC also contributed $2,000 to the senator’s campaign. AT&amp;T CEO John Stankley issued a Thursday, congratulating Biden in a “free and fair” election.&nbsp;In a to his LinkedIn profile, Charles Schwab CEO Walter Bettinger wrote that violence and intimidation “are never the answer.”Hawley also took from a affiliated with . The conglomerate’s CEO, Charles Koch, is an influential conservative donor who has also distanced himself from lawmakers’ attempt to thwart Biden’s transition. , a group founded by Koch in 2004, spent $4.6 million in campaign materials against former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill in the 2018 midterms between its super PAC and “dark money” arm.&nbsp;Since 2017, Hawley’s top contributor has consisted of individuals donating through the conduit PAC. The anti-tax 501(c)(4) has a reputation for bucking the GOP establishment.The group’s supporters gave Hawley nearly $300,000 since his election in 2018, and its spent nearly $3 million boosting Hawley’s 2018 run. In December, Club for Growth also launched a that promoted allegations of election fraud in Georgia ahead of the state’s Tuesday Senate runoffs, stoking the president’s effort to undercut the legitimacy of Biden’s November win in the swing state. Democrats won both contests, seizing control of the Senate from the GOP.Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets:Read more OpenSecrets News &amp; Analysis:Support Accountability JournalismAt OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. 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CloseAfter a mob of President ’s supporters broke into the Capitol building Wednesday, some top Republican donors condemned the violent mob and the lawmakers who incited them.&nbsp;&nbsp;Attackers entered the Capitol building around 2 p.m., shouting pro-Trump slogans and entering the offices of several Democratic lawmakers. Four people died amid the turmoil. Lawmakers, who were actively debating the certification of President-elect ’s electoral college win when the building was breached, were hurriedly evacuated or told to shelter in place.In the midst of the chaos and violence, a...

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Alyce McFadden

The most comprehensive, nonpartisan money-in-politics resource around. Formerly the Center for Responsive Politics & the National Institute on Money in Politics

Major GOP donors condemn lawmakers who incited Washington violence

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