Ted Cruz: Fortune 500, Wall Street ‘Overwhelmingly Favor’ Joe Biden, Democrats

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday slammed Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) attack on “dark money,” noting that Fortune 500 companies and Wall Street “overwhelmingly favor” Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Whitehouse attacked dark money’s alleged influence in American politics and elections. The Rhode Island Democrat spent his 30 minutes allotted for questioning Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s qualifications for the Supreme Court by attacking conservative institutions such as the Federalist Society. During his time, he failed to ask Barrett one question.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) just “questioned” Judge Amy Coney Barrett for approximately 30 minutes.

ACB word count in the exchange: 0

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 13, 2020

Cruz noted that most super PAC spending during the 2016 presidential election benefitted Democrats over Republicans. He explained:

Our Democratic colleagues when they address the issue of free speech, of so-called ‘dark money,’ and campaign finance contributions, are often deeply, deeply hypocritical. And, they don’t address the actual facts that exist. Here are some facts, of the top 20 organizations spending money for political speech in the year 2016, 14 of them gave virtually of their money to Democrats. And another three split their money evenly, so only three of the top 20 gave money to Republicans, what did that mean in practice? That meant that the top 20 super PACs donors contributed $422 million to Democrats and $189 million to Republicans.

“Those who give those impassioned speeches against dark money don’t mention that their side is funded by dark money with a massive differential,” Cruz added.

Breitbart News’ John Binder reported in September that “all the big banks” on Wall Street have backed Biden over Trump during the 2020 presidential election.

CNN wrote:

The securities and investment industry donated just $10.5 million to Trump’s presidential campaign and outside groups aligned with it, according to a new tally by OpenSecrets. It has sent nearly five times as much cash, $51.1 million, to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

That means Trump is losing the fundraising race among Wall Streeters by a slightly greater magnitude than in 2016. During that cycle, former New York Senator Hillary Clinton and groups aligned with her raised $88 million from the securities and investment industry, while Trump took in just $20.8 million. [Emphasis added]

…

But a CNN Business analysis of OpenSecrets research shows that Biden is beating Trump in fundraising from all of America’s big banks — in some cases by wide margins.

However, despite Whitehouse’s protestations about the influence of dark money in American politics, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Rhode Island Democrat has his own problems with dark money.

The Journal explained:

[O]n Tuesday Mr. Whitehouse refused to abide by the normal practice for congressional witnesses of answering questions.

Mr. Whitehouse knew that, if he answered questions, he was under legal obligation to tell the truth. House Republicans might have asked him about the dark-money outfit Arabella Advisors. This for-profit entity oversees nonprofits including the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, which together reported nearly a billion dollars in revenue in 2017 and 2018.

Arabella affiliate Demand Justice ran a smear campaign against Brett Kavanaugh and is now calling for Democrats to pack the Supreme Court. Demand Justice bills itself as a “project” of the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, and in public disclosures it lists the same office address as the two nonprofits.

Mr. Whitehouse’s silence about his own ties to dark-money networks shows his goal isn’t to clean up politics. He wants to silence those who disagree with him. If Mr. Whitehouse holds power in the Senate majority next year, do not expect what Joe Biden says will be a new era of comity and fair play.

“The senator from Rhode Island spoke about big corporate powers, without acknowledging that the contributions from the Fortune 500 in the presidential election overwhelmingly favors Joe Biden and the Democrats,” Cruz said. “Without acknowledging that the contributions from Wall Street in this election overwhelmingly favor Joe Biden and the Democrats.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.