Mitch McConnell warns GOP senators they'll face 'incoming' if they back Hawley bill to limit corporate giving

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Politics

Published 4:54 PM EDT, Tue October 31, 2023


(CNN) - Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell bluntly warned Republican senators in a private meeting not to sign on to a bill from Sen. Josh Hawley aimed at limiting corporate money bankrolling high-powered outside groups, telling them that many of them won their seats thanks to the powerful super PAC the Kentucky Republican has long controlled.

According to multiple sources familiar with the Tuesday lunch meeting, McConnell warned GOP senators that they could face “incoming” from the “center-right” if they signed onto Hawley’s bill. He also read off a list of senators who won their races amid heavy financial support from the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group tied to the GOP leader that spends big on TV ads in battleground Senate races. On that list of senators: Hawley himself, according to sources familiar with the matter.

McConnell has long been a chief opponent of tighter campaign finance restrictions. But there’s also no love lost between McConnell and Hawley, who has long criticized the GOP leader and has repeatedly called for new leadership atop their conference. Just on Tuesday, Hawley told CNN that it was “mistake” for McConnell to be “standing with” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, in their push to tie Ukraine aid to an Israel funding package.

Hawley’s new bill, called the Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act, is aimed at reversing the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision that loosened campaign finance laws – an effort that aligns the conservative Missouri Republican with many Democrats. Hawley’s bill would ban publicly traded corporations from making independent expenditures and political advertisements – and ban those publicly traded companies from giving money to super PACs.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/31/politics/mitch-mcconnell-josh-hawley-citizens-united/index.html

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Full headline: Mitch McConnell warns GOP senators they’ll face ‘incoming’ if they back Hawley bill to limit corporate giving in campaigns

Turtle runs that huge "Senate Leadership Fund" Super PAC and he would be loathe to give up any $$$.

Hawley is up for re-election so things must be bad for this insurrectionist (seen fleeing the building when the mobs he supported and encouraged, chased him out) to go this route.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. Moscow Mitch bought those mega-donors with our tax dollars and won't give them up.

[pecosbob]

31. He sold Supreme Court seats to christo-fascist billionaires.

[TheBlackAdder]

37. Actually, they won't face incomming (💲💲💲) if a limit is placed.

[DBoon]

2. So Hawley is actually proposing something sane?

I will mark this date on my calendar

[ShazzieB]

8. I know, I am terribly confused right now! 😕

Of all the people I never expected to agree with about anything - Josh Hawley?

[SouthernDem4ever]

9. Me three! WTF

I keep thinking they are going to cut him off from funds. It wonder if Hawley is just playing a game to punish them. He should know that the bill will be bad for his party.

[Chi67]

20. The reason should be quite clear.

Corporate donations are shifting from the GOP to the Dems. The reason for Hawley doing this is pretty clear. Corporations don't favor the GOP anymore:

https://time.com/6261170/big-business-fell-out-love-with-gop/

[TheRickles]

28. Good link, thanks.

[hueymahl]

29. Which we should monitor closely

I mean, I would rather have them come to us, but I would really rather have them banned. It is an absolutely corrupting influence on good government, no matter where they go.

[Escurumbele]

39. 100% agree with your statement. Take money out of politics.

[ShazzieB]

40. Wow, i had no idea!

It figures that he would have an ulterior motives. I just couldn't figure out what it might be.

[Delmette2.0]

34. I don't think he knows how this could go wrong.

Yesterday there was an interesting article about private Equity companies and how they don't have to explain anything on what they buy or spend. If we restrict public corporate expenditures and contributions then it may all turn over to private companies they will create branches to hide the money. Then they can donate that way and we'll never know who's supporting what.
We see this already with Leo Leonard and Koch.

Ban all corporate donations or restrict the dollar amounts.

[Novara]

3. Oops, Mitch just gave away the game.

[twodogsbarking]

4. Even if Mitch is healthy he is still a sick human.

[mahina]

5. My best guess is that Hawley's doing this at the instruction of Leonard Leo, who hides corporate donations in a complex

Shell game of donations, bundled, and basically laundered, untrackable.

This bill would hurt Democrats but not Republicans

[Rebl2]

10. Would not

be surprised.

[groundloop]

15. Ahhhhh..... THAT makes sense.

For a few moments I thought the world was ending because Hawley was doing something good, but this would explain everything. Just more GQP tricks.

[Chi67]

21. Bingo

[rpannier]

25. My understanding is... Hawley knows it will never pass

But he can use it to keep his "I"m a populist" theme going, but it's other people
Kind of like when some congress types claim credit for bills they voted against

[sellitman]

6. You know your party is screwed when

Mitch is the voice of reason.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Moscow Mitch loves bibery

McConnell tells Senate Democrats to back off on Supreme Court

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) warned Senate Democrats on Tuesday about issuing subpoenas to two prominent billionaires and a conservative activist because of their friendly ties to conservative members of the Supreme Court, calling such a move “totally inappropriate.”

McConnell essentially told Democratic colleagues to back off after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced this week that his committee will subpoena two businessmen who extended personal hospitality to conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

“What he’s targeting here is private citizens with no legislative purpose. I think it’s completely and totally inappropriate,” McConnell said at a press conference Tuesday.

Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Federal Courts, announced Monday that the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote to authorize subpoenas for billionaire real estate magnate Harlan Crow and mortgage company owner Robin Arkley II, who provided hospitality to Thomas and Alito, according to media reports.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mcconnell-tells-senate-democrats-back-194619072.html

[SouthernDem4ever]

11. McConnell must be afraid of his own exposure

He's such a sellout.

[Qutzupalotl]

36. A hit dog will holler.

The Judiciary Committee is totally within their purview here, and McConnell knows it. He tries to deflect by saying “no legislative purpose,” but oversight is a valid purpose, especially if justices are being bribed.

[Emile]

12. Mitch McConnell is a crooked sob.

[Wonder Why]

13. Repugs: "How will we afford to live without bribes? And SCOTUS needs them,too! Damn Democratic Party"

[WestMichRad]

14. Egads, I agree with Hawley on something?!

I need to go take a shower!

Although, look- the article notes Hawley’s bill pertains to donations from publicly traded corporations (only). Privately sourced donations could still lard up PACs. So at best, the proposal is a half-baked effort.

[usonian]

16. I hope that Moscow Mitch's deal with the devil sends him to flaming hell.

Mitch’s power rests in a stable government that he can manipulate. The party changed underneath him into a mob of anarchists who want to tear the whole nation down and rebuild it as a Christo-Fascist dictatorship. Mitch is a nobody when the senate and house are dissolved, and he has very softly said words against the insurrections, but not loud enough to get his sorry ass kicked out of office by the book burners and bomb tossers.

So far.

[slightlv]

17. Look at who the bill targets...

Publicly traded companies. The Koch brothers and others don't draw from any of their publicly traded companies. They give from their own personal stock. That makes them absolutely immune from this "law" and in fact gives them default permission to give as much or more. McConnell is losing it on so many levels; even here, he can't figure out which side of his bread is buttered!

[Rebl2]

18. Exactly

[jfz9580m]

24. Yeah..

Initially I thought maybe even a Hawley can be the stopped clock that is right twice day.
Otoh It is Hawley after all..Hawley versus Romney or McConnell versus the corporate creeps..
A pox on all their houses.
if it was Lina Khan or Elizabeth Warren one could be sure it was sane..This guy backed the insurrection. He is crazy.
There is not a whole lot that is trustworthy out there.

[DemocraticPatriot]

19. Interesting irony, that...

[markodochartaigh]

23. Senator Hawley must be upset

that he didn't get the sponsorship from the running shoe company that he thought he was a shoe-in for.

[dsc]

26. I don't think a law would reverse Citizens' United

That decision was grounded in the first amendment. They weren't interpreting a federal statute as they were in the Lilly Ledbetter case. Only if the SCOTUS reverses itself when deciding if Hawley's law is constitutional would this law help.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. I haven't looked at what he drafted

as I consider him first and foremost an insurrectionist not worth my time. But I think if there is some way to force "disclosure" of the corporate donors to these various PACs, then it could be something that doesn't broach the First Amendment, although at that point, they might try to argue that doing so would violate the Fourth instead (although that is a stretch given that individuals who contribute $100 or more for campaign contributions, are "reportable" and tracked (by name), so those who contribute millions should have to abide by the same standard). I.e., there should be no "dark money".

[pwb]

27. Egghead Hawley knows it will never pass in the house.

This is a fake by him to win again.

[AllaN01Bear]

32. how about a 4% millinares tax as well. isnt that was campain finance reform all about .( remember

trickey dick)?

[Baitball Blogger]

33. Conservative Americans have spent their entire lives ensuring that we are not created equally.

I can't think of a more unChristianlike and unAmerican viewpoint. Between gerrymandering, Jim Crowe and imbalanced corporate donations, it's a wonder that we even manage to have any Democratic representation in this country.

[MayReasonRule]

35. This Exempts Citizens United. This Targets Disney, Google And All Things "Woke"

This would not "reverse" Citizens United.

[Escurumbele]

38. Is this for real? Hawley is trying to pass a bill that I actually agree with? Could this be the beginning of the end of

"Citizens United"?

I hope I am understanding it right.