Unsurprising: Amazon Hires Lobbyist Brother of Biden Advisor

December 28th, 2020 10:05 AM

Big Tech has been trying to get on the good side of former Vice President Joe Biden for months, and now, Amazon is trying its best to cozy up to the prospective Biden administration.

The online shopping giant has hired new lobbyist Jeff Ricchetti, the brother of close Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti, according to CNBC

“The report shows Ricchetti registered to lobby for Amazon.com Services LLC., on Nov. 13, just a week after Biden was projected to defeat President Donald Trump,” said CNBC. 

“Biden’s stance on Amazon has included calls for the company to start paying their taxes. ‘I don’t think any company, I don’t give a damn how big they are, the Lord almighty, should absolutely be in a position where they pay no tax and make billions and billions and billions of dollars, No. 1,’ Biden said during a ‘Squawk Box’ interview in May,” CNBC reported. 

Liberal Amazon’s apparent efforts to woo the Biden camp are unsurprising. After all, the company’s charitable giving program, AmazonSmile, partially relies on the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to determine which organizations are eligible to receive AmazonSmile funding. The SPLC’s infamous “hate map” lists organizations in the country that the organization deems “hateful,” which lists several conservative organizations alongside actual hate groups like the KKK and Neo-Nazis.

So, AmazonSmile users may donate to Planned Parenthood or the Satanic Temple, but not to pro-traditional family, Christian conservative organizations like the Family Research Council or the Alliance Defending Freedom. However, a recent report from OpenDemocracy found that the program did fund “dozens” of anti-LGBT groups.

In June, MRC President Brent Bozell announced that the Media Research Center would no longer accept donations from the AmazonSmile program, calling it “tainted, hate-filled money that we want nothing to do with.”


Conservatives are under attack. Call Amazon at 1 (888) 280-4331 and demand that the platform provide transparency: Companies need to design open systems so that they can be held accountable, while giving weight to privacy concerns. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.