Chamber warns of funds cutoff to pols who stonewalled Biden
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is threatening to withhold campaign funds from politicians who railed against approval of Joe Biden’s election victory, but it wouldn’t identify which ones, nor did it call for the ouster of President Donald Trump after last week’s insurrection at the Capitol.
The chamber, among the most powerful business groups in Washington, on Tuesday echoed much of corporate America, which has started to reject the violence and false claims of election fraud put forth by Trump and his allies.
Yet many business leaders have been cautious in their rebukes.
Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue said he didn’t think the invasion was a “full coup” attempt, but he said the chamber didn’t like the mob’s conduct.
Trump’s name was barely mentioned during a 2½-hour video meeting to discuss the state of American business. In a statement, however, the chamber called the president’s conduct unacceptable.
“By his words and his actions he has undermined our democratic institutions and our ideals,” the statement reads.
Donohue rejected the notion that the U.S. business community had turned a blind eye to the divisions sowed by Trump that led to the violence so that it could get lower taxes and reduced government regulations.
“It’s very tough, I think, to make a straight-line connection between lower taxes and less regulation to the disturbances in Washington last week,” he said, while advocating for “necessary” regulations and “sufficient” taxes that he said would not stifle economic growth.
The chamber said its political action committee will cut donations from some legislators who spouted unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in trying to stop the vote from being certified.
But while Neil Bradley, the chamber’s chief policy officer, praised several legislators for their actions to certify the results after the attack, he wouldn’t identify those who might lose support.
He said the decision depends on how those legislators act in the coming days.