Buying Influence: $15,000,000 Favors That Biden Owns Big-Tech Leadership Is Concerning

Written By BlabberBuzz | Tuesday, 23 February 2021 09:50 PM
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Buying Influence: $15,000,000 Favors That Biden Owns Big-Tech Leadership Is Concerning

President Biden raised millions of dollars from workers at Silicon Valley technology companies in his bid to win the election, with donations from staffers at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple exceeding other corporate donors.

The numbers, according to an analysis of newly issued campaign finance reports, show how Big Tech’s rank and file-backed Biden overwhelmingly.

The president raised about $15 million from employees at these firms, making them the five largest aggregate corporate contributors to Biden’s campaign and joint fundraising committee, data reveal. Corporations cannot give directly to campaigns, but their employees can, providing a peephole into the political leanings of their staff.

Employees of Google and Alphabet gave Biden about $5.3 million, with donations from staff at Facebook coming in around $1.9 million, $2.6 million at Amazon, $3.2 million at Microsoft, and $1.9 million from Apple, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

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Former President Donald Trump raised significantly less from Big Tech staffers during the presidential race, drawing about $500,000 in total from employees at the same five firms.

Alternatively, his largest aggregate corporate donors were employees of American Airlines, Boeing, Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, and Wells Fargo, raising less than $400,000 from each, according to records filed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

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The Washington Examiner's analysis is based on the latest Federal Election Commission data for the 2020 presidential election cycle, including Biden's campaign fundraising sums and two joint fundraising committees, with the records classified by employers to collect aggregate donations. Each person can give a maximum of $2,800 directly, while donations above $200 must give the name of the contributors' employer.

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Because donors self-report employer details, records may be incomplete, and so the numbers available are an approximation.

Advocates can make larger donations through pro-candidate political organizations that are not affiliated with a campaign. Silicon Valley Biden-backers gave additionally through those.

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Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz donated $46 million to Biden, routing most of that amount through Future Forward USA, a Democratic super PAC that reports to the Federal Election Commission as FF PAC.

Trump's largest aggregate donation came from Las Vegas Sands, a $45 million donation to an organization upheld by Republican big donors Sheldon Adelson and Bernie Marcus, Preserve America PAC. The group launched in August with a battery of campaign advertisements.

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Tech companies faced intensified criticism under Trump. While in office, the former president argued that firms use their power to silence people they don’t like and said that he and other conservatives were unfairly targeted online.

He accused Twitter and Facebook of dividing the country after they banned him in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot carried out by some of his radical supporters, the firms' strongest action yet.

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