Biden fundraises from lobbyists despite pledge

[True Dough]

Apparently his campaign has now pledged to return this money.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden entered the Democratic primary promising “from day one” to reject campaign cash from lobbyists.

“I work for you — not any industry,” he tweeted.

Yet hours after his April campaign kickoff, the former vice president went to a fundraiser at the home of a lobbying executive. And in the months since, he’s done it again and again. It’s difficult to quantify how much Biden has raised from the multibillion-dollar influence industry, but the roughly $200,000 he accepted from employees of major lobbying firms is far more than any of his rivals has received, according to a review of campaign finance data by The Associated Press.

Though it’s a small fraction of the $21.5 million he reported raising in the second quarter of 2019, the money demonstrates a comfort with an industry that is the object of scorn of Democratic activists and some of Biden’s principal rivals.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/biden-fundraises-from-lobbyists-despite-pledge

[Magoo48]

1. Note to candidates:

Wall Street is not now, nor will it ever be, our friend.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/25/biden-harris-and-buttigieg-rack-up-donations-from-wall-street-executives.html

[ehrnst]

6. Same goes for Pharma Executives.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-accepted-pharma-executives-donations-prior-pledge/story?id=64390750

Or those who lack transparency.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/bernie-sanders-institute-donations

[JudyM]

9. Actually reading your links makes a difference.

Donations from people identifying as, e.g., a scientific researcher .... and donations to the Sanders Institute, not his political campaign, "This pledge was launched today with our full knowledge that some money may need to be returned," Sanders campaign spokesperson Sarah Ford told ABC News. "We're glad to donate the three donations worth $2700 out of nearly $40 million received since launch." Etc. Nothing to see here.

[ehrnst]

10. Actually reading the posts makes a difference if you're going to comment on them

Another donation of $1,000 came from Schiffon Wong, who identifies herself on LinkedIn as the executive director, global evidence and value development at EMD Serono, a company covered on Sanders' list that describes itself as a “biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in the U.S.” Both EMD Serono and Merck are on Sanders' list.

In each instance, the job titles of the donors were provided in non-specific terms -- as "medical director" and "researcher" for McRoy and Wong, respectively. Such descriptors are common in FEC reports and both individuals disclosed their employers, as is required.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/schiffonwong/

The Sanders campaign also received a contribution of $250 from Austin Kim, who is listed as the executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded company that produces a drug to treat Parkinson's disease-related hallucinations. Acadia is not, however, listed on the pledge's list as it is not a member of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Also, reading the links within the article can be most helpful.

https://www.fec.gov/data/individual-contributions/?committee_id=C00696948&contributor_name=lynn+mcroy&contributor_employer=pfizer&contributor_employer=de+shaw&contributor_employer=aflac&contributor_employer=zurich+north+america&contributor_employer=wps+health+insurance&contributor_employer=abbvie&contributor_employer=alexion&contributor_employer=alkermes&contributor_employer=allergan&contributor_employer=amgen&contributor_employer=astellas&contributor_employer=astra&two_year_transaction_period=2020

Simply because you don't want to "see something," that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I hope that clears some things up for you.

[JudyM]

11. This was before the pledge, and he said he's returning it. You expect every candidate to know

every donation that comes in? I’d like to see every candidate meet that standard but they can’t. A genuine good faith effort is hardly lack of transparency, sorry.

[ehrnst]

13. Goalposts moved.

Noted.



The lack of transparency is referring to the Sanders Institute donors. You may have skipped over that part of the article.

[JudyM]

14. Nope same goalposts, sorry, you're stretching too much.

As for the Institute $, as stated, that was not his campaign, and at the time received, it appears it was being used to promote other progressive candidates.

Myself, I’m much more concerned about making progress than tearing down candidates.

[ehrnst]

15. And we have a red herring...

to go with the straw man...

You expect every candidate to know every donation that comes in?

Myself, I’m much more concerned about making progress than tearing down candidates.

Pointing out facts is "tearing down a candidate?"




Relax. Does it matter that much to you?

[JudyM]

17. What matters the most is beating trump. What matters next is reforming the way our government

sucks at the corporate teat and does its bidding with no repercussions. Just my opinion.

[ehrnst]

18. And we have yet another evasion of what I've brought up.

I'm not surprised.

Red herring fallacy:
Description: Attempting to redirect the argument to another issue to which the person doing the redirecting can better respond. While it is similar to the avoiding the issue fallacy, the red herring is a deliberate diversion of attention with the intention of trying to abandon the original argument.

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/150/Red-Herring

[KPN]

2. Oops! Come on Joe .... you can do better than that. nt

[Cha]

22. and Biden's campaign said it is returning such donations.

Biden’s pledge applies only to federally registered lobbyists, and most of the money tracked by the AP was from others in the influence industry. But thousands of dollars did come from federally registered lobbyists, and Biden’s campaign said it is returning such donations.

[KPN]

34. Cool.

[highplainsdem]

3. Interesting. You left out the paragraph explaining that he's returning the money.

Biden’s pledge applies only to federally registered lobbyists, and most of the money tracked by the AP was from others in the influence industry. But thousands of dollars did come from federally registered lobbyists, and Biden’s campaign said it is returning such donations.

I know I've seen other news stories about campaigns returning donations they'd accepted.

[True Dough]

4. I noted that his campaign has pledged to return the money

at the top of my post (no editing was done to insert it either).

[highplainsdem]

5. Whoops - missed that line above the block with the excerpt.

[highplainsdem]

7. I know you didn't edit the OP. It was just sloppy reading on my part that I missed that line.

My eyes had gone straight to the excerpt you quoted. Sorry.

[True Dough]

8. Understood

No worries.

[DrFunkenstein]

12. Just Because They Give Him Millions Doesn't Mean They Expect Anything Back

Maybe they just like his positions on crime.

[George II]

24. It's not even millions, its $200,000.

[Cha]

19. " and Biden's campaign said it is returning such donations."

Biden’s pledge applies only to federally registered lobbyists, and most of the money tracked by the AP was from others in the influence industry. But thousands of dollars did come from federally registered lobbyists, and Biden’s campaign said it is returning such donations.

[George II]

25. Did you actually READ the OP and the full article?

[Cha]

37. I'm guessing a

Big Fat NO.

[myohmy2]

44. "Big Fat NO."

...

...

[Cha]

45. No "finger wagging".

[George II]

20. He didn't "fundraise from lobbyists", he received contributions from people who work at....

...lobbyist companies. That is worded as though his campaign set up fundraisers for lobbyists.

What are their occupations - janitors, clerical staff, receptionists, lunchroom cooks, etc.?

At least we know where the majority of Biden's contributors work and their occupations, unlike other campaigns that don't itemize as much as 80% of their contributions.

[melman]

21. Not good

Not good at all.

[still_one]

29. What, that he is returning the donations or that Sanders hired people who voted for Jill Stein to

high positions in his campaign, and those people encouraged others to do likewise

Got it

[melman]

30. This

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden entered the Democratic primary promising “from day one” to reject campaign cash from lobbyists.

“I work for you — not any industry,” he tweeted.

Yet hours after his April campaign kickoff, the former vice president went to a fundraiser at the home of a lobbying executive. And in the months since, he’s done it again and again. It’s difficult to quantify how much Biden has raised from the multibillion-dollar influence industry, but the roughly $200,000 he accepted from employees of major lobbying firms is far more than any of his rivals has received, according to a review of campaign finance data by The Associated Press.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/biden-fundraises-from-lobbyists-despite-pledge

[Cha]

23. and Biden's campaign said it is returning such donations

Biden’s pledge applies only to federally registered lobbyists, and most of the money tracked by the AP was from others in the influence industry. But thousands of dollars did come from federally registered lobbyists, and Biden’s campaign said it is returning such donations.

[still_one]

28. You understand they really don't really care about the facts.

[Cha]

33. ..

[betsuni]

26. So where a person works makes their donation corrupting or not corrupting?

Why would donations from a Democrat who works on Wall St. or for a pharmaceutical company corrupt anybody? Is it assumed that everyone working for corporations is secretly a Republican? I don't get it.

[George II]

27. Several years ago when I posted that my sister was a bank teller at a NYC suburb bank branch...

...someone here actually branded her a "bankster"!

[crazytown]

32. Well, she did pull out a Glock

and told the customer to hand it over. No?

[betsuni]

35. Sigh.

It's a cartoon world. Every time I see "sucking at the teat of corporate lobbyists" I .

[crazytown]

31. As I recall, Pete returned some lobbyist money too.

At that time he was the only declared candidate who was taking it. Pots and pans in the kitchen.

[George II]

36. When you're receiving $20-30 million over the course of a few months, there are bound to be....

....some oversights here and there. $200,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to some other campaigns.

[crazytown]

38. What I was saying is a that a Buttigieg supporter

should know better than to bang this drum.

[George II]

39. Yes, that's right. Actually no one should considering that EVERY campaign has situations like this.

[crazytown]

40. Then again, some campaigns have an easier time

sorting through their (relatively) meager donations, and others have a lot more to worry about like the USD/RUB exchange rate

[George II]

41. Ouch!

[True Dough]

43. That's right

And when it happened with Pete, all of his DU supporters were subjected to a thread (or two) offering condemnation from those who endorse other candidates.

Turnabout is fair play!

[betsuni]

42. Al Franken on lobbying (from "Giant of the Senate" ):

"The proliferation of money in politics is a huge problem, and ... it has some pretty terrible consequences. But does that mean that elected officials are all bought and paid for? The truth, I've discovered, is a little more complicated. Campaign contributions don't buy votes. What they buy is access. That's why lobbyists write campaign checks. They're not bribes. They're grease. They enable those lobbyists to come to fund-raisers, where they get to talk to you while you're trying to remember their names. Gross, right? And it is! I hear from a lot of lobbyists. And, yes, some of them are every bit as transactional as you're imagining. But others, often the more effective ones, are actually passionate about the issue they're representing. And while lobbying -- and all the money associated with it -- offers lots of opportunities for corruption, lobbying itself isn't inherently corrupt. Many lobbyists represent good causes, like solar energy or Alzheimer's research or a woman's reproductive rights. They may have donated to you not in order to buy your support going forward, but because you've been supporting their good cause all along. And more often than not, you're not meeting with them because of a check they wrote, but rather because you're on the same team."