Charles Koch would like to clear something up: Despite media speculation, he will by no means support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election. But he’s not interested in the presidential election, Koch said. “We’re not engaged on the presidential”.
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“We’re focused on the Senate”, said Mark Holden, general counsel and senior vice president of Koch Industries, noting that none of the presidential candidates are aligned with the Koch network “from a values, and beliefs and policy perspective”.
In an interview with “Fox News Sunday”, Clinton said the moment was “over-the-top emotional” and that “I was pretty concerned whether I’d make it through the speech”.
The Koch’s Freedom Partners network has a budget of about $750 million, and they will spend it supporting Republican candidates, particularly those facing touch races across the nation.
The libertarian-leaning Koch, and his brother David, disagree with Trump on a variety of issues, including immigration, trade, minimum wage, and criminal justice reform. But: “In the end, choosing between the two, I still believe that any Republican including Donald Trump is better than Hillary”.
Its use has landed U.S. political figures in trouble before: in 2011, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin used it against critics of her rhetoric about Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely wounded in a mass shooting in which six people died. They have contributed heavily to conservative campaigns and think tanks, are among the best known Republican donors.
The group’s main argument for not supporting Trump, as The Washington Post reported, is that supporting Trump would harm the network’s credibility, making it more hard for them to not support future Republican candidates who also differ sharply from the Koch brothers’ positions on free trade and limited government. “We are safer (now)”, he said. Mike Lee of Utah, Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, among others. “That’s what the data shows”.
Although donor gatherings like this one are a feature of the Koch influence in American politics, they are usually kept private.
The comments came Saturday, the first day in the three-day exclusive gathering for donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners – a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote a smaller, less intrusive government.
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A significant portion was supposed to be directed at electing a Republican to the White House. “And we’ve got to remember that Republican presidents advance a lot of bad policies, just like Democrats”.
