Liberal outlet The Guardian reported Feb. 10, that conservative donor Sheldon Adelson is allegedly gearing up to spend $100 million to help boost President Donald Trump and Republican candidates this fall.
The outlet used its reporting (citing “three Republican fundraisers familiar with Adelson’s initial plans”) to suggest later that “The president’s courting of the Adelsons contradicts his claims in 2016, when Trump donned a populist mantle and pledged to ‘drain the swamp’ of big money and lobbying.”
Yet, Adelson, at this point, is tied for 43rd in contributions to outside spending groups, according to Open Secrets. In fact, current data reveal that the top four liberal donors dwarf the spending of the top 39 donors to conservative outside spending groups combined.
So why is The Guardian in its piece focusing on money that has been allegedly promised, while ignoring millions that have already been spent?
Liberal billionaires Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg, Donald Sussman and multimillionaire Fred Eychaner collectively contributed $63,970,900 to liberal outside spending groups working to boost Democrats’ electoral chances in 2020. Meanwhile, the top 39 donors to conservative outside spending groups contributed $63,868,309. The 39 conservative donors’ spending still lost out to Steyer, Bloomberg, Sussman and Eychaner’s spending by $102,591.
Steyer, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and media-dubbed “patrician populist” still managed to beat every top donor listed by Open Secrets so far this cycle. The billionaire contributed a whopping $28,321,900 between Need to Impeach and NextGen Climate Action, two left-wing groups he founded, the first of which he used to push Congress to impeach Trump.
Liberal billionaire owner of Bloomberg News, Michael Bloomberg, contributed $15,059,000 to outside spending groups this cycle, aside from the $200-plus million he funneled into his personal presidential campaign.
Cash recipient, Independence USA PAC, was formed by Bloomberg in 2012 to support candidates who backed things like gun control and the destruction of the coal industry. Another Bloomberg cash recipient, House Majority PAC, works to help Democrats maintain majority control in the House of Representatives. Bloomberg also contributed $5 million to Fair Fight PAC, a left-wing group founded by failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
Liberal billionaire Donald Sussman contributed $12,590,000, distributed amongst several left-wing groups this cycle. These groups included Senate Majority PAC, which works to help Democrats win control of the Senate, environmentalist group League of Conservation Voters, and the super PAC Priorities USA Action, whose 501(c)(4) advocacy organization Priorities USA announced last year that it was launching an advertising campaign that would repackage local news into Democratic Party propaganda.
Hillary Clinton supporter Fred Eychaner contributed $4,000,000 each to the left-wing House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC. Eychaner is the chairman of Newsweb Corp, which “owns radio stations and a printing press that produces alternative, college and ethnic newspapers,” according to The Los Angeles Times. “He [Eychaner] has been one of the top donors in the country to Democratic campaigns, gay rights groups and arts organizations.”
