Via America’s Lawyer: Mike Papantonio and Trial Lawyer Magazine editor Farron Cousins discuss how although the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has historically funded Republicans, we’re seeing a political pivot as it is now funneling money to centrist Democrats, who hope to preserve the relationship between Wall Street and Capitol Hill.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: US Chamber of Commerce has historically supported Republican candidates, but they, they’ve decided to branch out by holding fundraisers for centrist Democrats. There’s a reason behind this move and I have Farron Cousins from the trial lawyer magazine to tell us what’s happening. Farron, you know, we, we’ve talked about this in the past. The centrist Democrats are almost not, you can’t tell the difference between the centrist Democrat and Republican even today.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: So now the Chamber of Commerce used to give 80% of their money to Republicans, they’re now making the shift. They’re trying to rebuild the centrist Democrats because they’re afraid of the progressive arm. Give me your take.
Farron Cousins: Well, it’s really interesting that the US Chamber of Commerce decided, and this was actually last week, they held this big kind of an award ceremony, I guess for their, their little group, which is actually just an offshoot of No Labels and they are starting to funnel a little bit more money. We saw it in 2018, we’re seeing it now for 2020, to these centrist, or actually a better term would be corporatist Democrats because they understand that these Democrats, much like a lot of the more moderate Republicans, they don’t want anything at all to change. Not change for the better, certainly not changed for the worst. Just keep things the way they are. No regulations, low to no taxes and everybody wins according to the Chamber of Commerce. But really it’s just their members that win on this plan.
Mike Papantonio: So again, the Democrat, Wall Street Republican, I mean Wall Street Democrats, that’s what, I got different names, but it’s all about Wall Street.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: And so now you have them, they’ve captured this gutenheimer and several other diff, Democrats as leadership that, that plan for these folks, these centrist is to take all of the attention away from the Progressive’s, put huge money into the centrist agenda. That was initially brought by, by, Bill Clinton. You know, that’s when we started the globalist Democrat, this centrist Democrat, the Wall Street Democrat. So those are the days the Republic that the, the, the, the corporates want, the Chamber of Commerce, associated industry, all the corporate types want to move back to. But, aren’t they getting hustled again? Aren’t the centrist Democrats getting hustled again?
Farron Cousins: They are. That’s the thing they’re best at. Because Evan Bayh, several years ago after he had left the Senate, wanted to get back into the Senate, hitched his wagon to the Chamber of Commerce, did some fundraisers with them, and then when it came time for his campaign to start back, they abandoned him. They started supporting his opponent, pouring money into his opponent, even though he was very much a corporatist. So they got what they wanted out of him. They got his name, you know, they got him to go out there and headline these events. But then when it came time to, you know, put your money where your mouth is, they absolutely worked him over.
Mike Papantonio: Okay.
Farron Cousins: And he never saw it coming.
Mike Papantonio: Let me, let mention something, the Intercept again did a great job. They, what a great source for what’s really happening in the world, the Intercept. So now the Intercept says, look, we kind of know who they are. You know, it’s Microsoft, it’s Conoco, it’s Goldman Sachs, it’s Coca-Cola, it’s all the usual suspects. But what the story didn’t go into and they didn’t give enough detail. Now the story we did last week where we’re seeing Apple, we’re seeing Amazon, we’re seeing, you know, the, the, all the social media, the Google, the warm and fuzzy corporate types that are now pushing money, not directly, but in special interest, conservative, special interest groups. Aren’t we seeing that more and more?
Farron Cousins: We are, and, and they understand the same thing the Chamber sees, change is on the horizon and it’s not just because we have the progressive candidates. It’s because when you look at the polling, you have Republicans, Democrats and independents who say, listen, we’re burning down the planet. There’s a hundred corporations responsible for 70% of this. They’ve gotta be held accountable. The healthcare industry, Republicans, Democrats, everybody says we’re getting worked over by them and this has to stop. They see the writing on the wall. It’s not, it is mainly, I guess because of the progressive candidates out there talking about it, but the public understands it now. They see it in their bills and they want change.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. Not only that, aren’t we seeing this, the Cory Booker’s, the Kamala Harris’, they can’t run under disguise anymore.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: I mean, we’re seeing it. I mean, Cory Booker, we know the story on him. He sides with the pharmaceutical industry. You know, we wanted to import drugs, cheaper drugs from places like Canada, Cory Booker, single handedly rallies six Democrats to stop that. We saw Kamala Harris out in California with the things that she did on behalf of corporate America. So the good news is the American public is waking up and it’s harder for these people to hide.
