Thursday, March 28, 2024

Shocking: Biden tops $145 million from unknown donors





In a shocking revelation, it has been found that the United States president Joe Biden gets a record amount of donations from anonymous donors outside the groups that were backing him. 

A report showed that Biden raked in about $145 million in donations far outstripping the $28.4 million spent on behalf of his rival, former President Donald Trump. It also tops the previous record of $113 million in dark money donations spent on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. 

Although Democrats have previously introduced legislation to crack down on dark money donations, it did not stop them from accepting anonymous donations themselves as they fought to defeat Trump.

Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, was unapologetic. “We weren’t going to unilaterally disarm against Trump and the right-wing forces that enabled him,” he said in a statement.

Campaign finance laws, in theory, are supposed to limit the influence big money has over politicians. But the system has gaping loopholes, which groups backing Biden and other candidates, have exploited.

As part of his government reform plan, Biden called for banning certain types of nonprofits from spending money in elections and requiring that any group that spends more than $10,000 on federal elections to require with the Federal Election Committee and publicly disclose its donors. Under such a proposal, Priorities USA would have been forced to name its donors.

Biden raised $1.5 billion — a record — for his campaign, which can accept donations of no more than $2,800 from individual donors under FEC laws. That figure includes $318.6 million from donors who gave less than $200 each; the rest stemmed from donors who gave at least $825,000, with that money split between Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

In September, Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, said he would spend $100 million to help Biden in Florida, allowing Democrats to divert money to other must-win states. Biden lost Florida but flipped five states that Trump won in 2016. 

“The whole point of dark money is to avoid public disclosure while getting private credit,” said Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, which advocates for reducing the influence of money on politics. “It’s only dark money to the public.”

Overall, the Democrats received a benefit of $ 326 million in dark money, twice more than what the Republican groups received. Democrats have used the dark money in critical battleground areas like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Future Forward USA Action is one of the biggest sources of funds which has contributed $61 million and the company hasn’t disclosed the names of those who contributed the entire amount.

Amy Kurtz, executive director of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, said the surge of money to the group, which doesn’t disclose the names of its donors, included people who previously gave to Republicans or had not been engaged in politics.

The flood of dark money to Democrats and progressive groups has complicated their effort to reform the system.

“Dark money is toxic to democracy — period,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “The fact that progressive groups have learned to fight back using similar tactics is no excuse for continuing the plague of dark money in America.”


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