This week, Every Voice and our partners have launched a campaign to #FixDemocracyNow - encouraging candidates across the country to champion policies to reduce the power of big money, guarantee the right to vote, and ending partisan gerrymandering.
First, House Republicans attacked the Office of Congressional Ethics. Then, Senate Republicans tried to ram through Trump’s nominees before they were cleared of conflicts of interest. And now, they’re attacking another ethics office in government. What are they trying to hide?
Appointing big donors and Wall Street-types to your administration isn’t draining the swamp, it’s feeding the alligators.
Adam Smith, Communications Director at Every Voice, on Donald Trump’s big money cabinet. Buzzfeed. (via trumpsswamp)
President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has apparently admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses, or their families.
Washington Post, “Trump Foundation apparently admits to violating ban on ‘self-dealing,’ new filing to IRS shows.” November 22, 2016 (via trumpsswamp)
Donald Trump’s new hires should brace themselves for a full immersion in government ethics school. They’re going to need it given the president-elect’s sprawling business empire and his lack of interest in selling off his companies and properties outright.
Donald Trump said he’d “drain the swamp” in Washington, but so far he’s done nothing but hired lobbyists for his transition team, considered big donors for his cabinet, and done nothing to prevent his administration from being mired in conflict-of-interest scandals with his businesses. Keep track of it all with our new Tumblr: http://trumpsswamp.tumblr.com/
All Talk and No Action
Donald Trump started his day Thursday with a speech at the American Legion, where he said, "Government access and favors will no longer be for sale."
As Trump continues to talk about money’s influence in politics, several stories from the same day as that speech show that he’s become a status quo politician when it comes to our broken campaign finance system, while at the same time offering zero policy proposals to fix the problems he criticizes.
- The Washington Post published a story on Trump seeking and using advice from his big donors.
- In this story about the state of Trump's campaign, Politico reported that Trump donors are teasing policy influence to secure donations: "Doug Deason, the son of Texas billionaire Darwin Deason, tried to persuade Charles Koch to have a meeting with the nominee. In an interview, Deason recalled telling Koch that he could influence Trump’s policies."
- The Wall Street Journal reported that his VP, Mike Pence, will attend a fundraiser with a bunch of Washington lobbyists. In February, Trump said of the ads attacking him in the primary: "These are special interests, folks. These are lobbyists. These are people that don’t necessarily love our country."
- He announced that the former head of Citizens United, of Citizens United v. FEC, would be his deputy campaign manager. Immediately before, David Bossie was leading a Trump-aligned super PAC--the kind of groups he has called “a disaster.” Bossie was recruited for that role by Kellyanne Conway, Trump's current campaign manager.
- It was revealed that his donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi--timed coincidentally with her investigation into whether she should investigate Trump University--broke IRS rules and he was required to pay a $2,500 penalty.
We’ve sent letters to the Trump campaign suggesting some policies to adopt on this front, but we haven’t heard anything. He could look at Hillary Clinton’s proposal for inspiration too.
Get You A Man Who Can Do Both
Last Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said this about news stories about the Clinton Foundation and its donors seeking access with Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State:
“We must get to the bottom of what looks like a pay-to-play scheme.”
This morning, just six days later, Chris Christie is asking for $5,000 to give donors an “inside look” at the transition process for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign:
Cash for access to the Trump transition effort -- Gov. Chris Christie is hosting an intimate, 40-person “look inside” the transition effort, but it’ll cost you. The price tag: $5,000 per person. The invitation, which went out this week, invites a small number of Republican insiders to the Bernard’s Inn in Bernards, New Jersey, for the Sept. 15 event, which will run from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. “This will be an inside look on the work underway on planning for the transition,” the invitation reads.
Hillary Clinton Pledges to Make Reform a “Top Priority.”
Hillary Clinton (D), during a speech in New Hampshire after being endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders on July 12, 2016 (video):
“We won’t get anywhere unless we overhaul our campaign finance system. It is past time to end the stranglehold of wealthy special interests in Washington and get back to government of the people, by the people, and for the people. As president, from my very first days, I will make campaign finance reform a top priority.
"We will do everything we can to overturn Citizens United, and we will require everybody - Democrats, Republicans, independent, whoever - to disclose all of their donors. And while we’re at it, we’re going to create a small donor matching system to make it easy for more Americans to be elected at every level of government. Because just like Bernie, I have met so many impressive people here in New Hampshire and across America with great ideas for our country. I want to see you run for office and win.
"And here’s another radical idea: let’s make it easier to vote, not harder. Let’s fight back against attacks on voting rights across the country, attacks that disproportionately affect low-income voters, people of color, students, the elderly, and women. That means we need to restore the voting rights act, and then keep going. All Americans should be automatically registered to vote on their 18th birthday. Every state should have at least 20 days of in-person voting and none in America should have to wait more than 30 minutes to cast their ballot. So Senator Sanders and I will be working to get unaccountable money out of politics and the voice of everyday Americans back in. Because as Bernie has said, this isn’t a progressive issue, it’s not a conservative issue, it’s an American issue.”
Instead of just being defensive about money in politics, Clinton should go on the offense saying what she’ll do to address the broken system, according to the American Prospect’s Eliza Newlin Carney:
“Another, more successful approach—one that Clinton has largely ignored—would be for her to actually campaign on the political money reform platform that she rolled out in September.”
”Ahead of Tuesday’s primary in Wisconsin, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is targeting John Kasich with a TV attack ad for the first time, suggesting that Mr. Kasich engaged in cronyism as Ohio’s governor.
“The commercial brings up Mr. Kasich’s lucrative earnings as a board member of Worthington Industries, an Ohio-based steel processor, before saying that the company received hundred of thousands of dollars in tax breaks after Mr. Kasich became governor. The ad also says that the company laid off workers last year, while its chief executive donated $500,000 to an outside group supporting Mr. Kasich.”
Madison, Wisconsin—Hillary Clinton delivered the strongest speech of her 2016 campaign in Wisconsin this week, and the media barely noticed. In this absurd campaign season, when media outlets devote hours of time to arguments about which Republican candidate insulted which wife, about violent a...
We must restore Americans’ faith in the democratic process. We can do that by fighting for a Supreme Court that will overturn Citizens United and get the dark money out of our political system.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), during a speech at the Center for American Progress (Release).
And throughout his jurisprudence runs a common thread, a dedication to protecting the basic rights of every American, a conviction that in a democracy, powerful voices must not be allowed to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.
President Barack Obama, during his speech announcing federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland as his nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, a likely reference to recent money-in-politics decisions. (Time)
We take enormous pride in the fact that we are the world’s oldest continuous democracy, and yet we systematically put up barriers and make it as hard as possible for our citizens to vote. And it is much easier to order pizza or a trip than it is for you to exercise the single most important task in a democracy, and that is for you to select who is going to represent you in government.
President Barack Obama, at SXSW in Austin on Friday, about voting rights. (Transcript).
And it’s obstruction a majority of Americans oppose: “According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, a sizable majority of Americans — including a strong contingent of independents — think the Senate should at least hold hearings on President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court.”