Elections Trump wants a billion dollars from oil for election. Promises them an easy time if elected .

Deorum said:
You need courts to stop consistently ruling that corporations are people, and that lobbying is protected by the 1A.
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I don't know how you can avoid the conclusion that lobbying is protected by the First Amendment without amending it. Also, corporations already can't donate to candidates. They can donate to Super PACs, though, thanks to CU (and specifically to Roberts, Alito, and Thomas, in addition to Scalia and Kennedy). And the thing is, there is no evidence at all that ad buys actually influence election results. But when you have a crook like Trump who is A) looking for ways to personally benefit from the donations and B) straight up offering to allow pollution (that is harmful to the country but good for polluters) in exchange for money, we do have a problem. Cynical hacks like @Rob Battisti and @nostradumbass are unable to condemn it because they are rhetorically committed to the false notion that that stuff is normal (and because they can never bring themselves to go against the party line).
 
Islam Imamate said:
I think the issue here is that Trump is doing something that is a lot closer to a direct bribe than is usual for American politics.
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The article doesn't have any quotes about what he said, so it is ultimately impossible to know, but it seems the difference is him suggesting they raise money for his campaign. That is something that is always implied in these things while candidates give their pitch to industries while they'll be so favorable to them. It just goes to the hollow criticism people harp on with Trump; Trump is far more crass and crude and they prefer a level of decorum. Doesn't matter if the policy/corruption/process/etc. is any different.

There was a couple articles recently about the amount of donations August Pfluger has been getting from oil & gas. He's in a completely noncompetitive district, already, has the nomination, and they are flooding him with money. But since he doesn't outright say "give me the money" it isn't quite as scary to people.


What makes this any different from the countless donation requests from Democrats & Republicans to save or kill Roe v Wade?
 
Islam Imamate said:
Well yeah obviously what I said there only holds if the allegations are true.

If your argument is that you're skeptical that it happened that is one thing but if it did happen I would argue its outside the norms of typical American politics.
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“The private comments strike a tone starkly at odds with the fiery message she’s pushed throughout her campaign, particularly during the hard-fought Democratic primary. Some of her remarks give fresh fuel to liberals’ worst fears about Clinton, namely that she is a political moderate, happy to cut backroom deals with corporate interests and curry favor with Wall Street for campaign dollars.”

www.pbs.org

Leaked emails show what Clinton told executives in private

The private comments strike a tone starkly at odds with the fiery message she's pushed throughout her campaign.
www.pbs.org www.pbs.org
 
RemyR said:
Dude, government corruption isn't exactly just limited to one side.

oversight.house.gov

Hearing Wrap Up: Witnesses Expose Joe Biden’s Involvement in His Family’s Corrupt Influence Peddling Schemes - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability
oversight.house.gov oversight.house.gov
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That story has already fallen apart completely.

Trump certainly isn't the only corrupt politician (look at Menendez), but he is by far the most corrupt person to ever get a major party presidential nomination.
 
PhitePhan said:
“The private comments strike a tone starkly at odds with the fiery message she’s pushed throughout her campaign, particularly during the hard-fought Democratic primary. Some of her remarks give fresh fuel to liberals’ worst fears about Clinton, namely that she is a political moderate, happy to cut backroom deals with corporate interests and curry favor with Wall Street for campaign dollars.”

www.pbs.org

Leaked emails show what Clinton told executives in private

The private comments strike a tone starkly at odds with the fiery message she's pushed throughout her campaign.
www.pbs.org www.pbs.org
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What is the point of linking this? I read through it and nowhere does there seem to be any indication that Clinton did anything close to what Trump is alleged to have done here. Sure many of those statements she made in those speeches wouldn't make her popular with voters but I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding the problem with what Trump is alleged to have done here if you think Clinton's speeches are comparable. But its to be expected as the go to defense from the Trump side is "everyone does it" where "it" becomes as loosely defined as possible to facilitate the false equivalency.
 
jrams said:
The article doesn't have any quotes about what he said, so it is ultimately impossible to know, but it seems the difference is him suggesting they raise money for his campaign. That is something that is always implied in these things while candidates give their pitch to industries while they'll be so favorable to them. It just goes to the hollow criticism people harp on with Trump; Trump is far more crass and crude and they prefer a level of decorum. Doesn't matter if the policy/corruption/process/etc. is any different.

There was a couple articles recently about the amount of donations August Pfluger has been getting from oil & gas. He's in a completely noncompetitive district, already, has the nomination, and they are flooding him with money. But since he doesn't outright say "give me the money" it isn't quite as scary to people.


What makes this any different from the countless donation requests from Democrats & Republicans to save or kill Roe v Wade?
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The quid pro quo is what makes it different. Maybe this interaction didn't go as is alleged and this story is a nothingburger but if true I think its quite concerning. Then again its exactly the kind of thing one should expect of Trump at this point.
 
Islam Imamate said:
The quid pro quo is what makes it different.
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What exactly do you think the reason big donors give money to political campaigns is? Just tossing around money for the hell of it? It's all quid pro quo.
 
Islam Imamate said:
The quid pro quo is what makes it different. Maybe this interaction didn't go as is alleged and this story is a nothingburger but if true I think its quite concerning. Then again its exactly the kind of thing one should expect of Trump at this point.
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As Donald Trump sat with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year.

Trump’s response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people.

Trump’s remarkably blunt and transactional pitch reveals how the former president is targeting the oil industry to finance his reelection bid. At the same time, he has turned to the industry to help shape his environmental agenda for a second term, including the rollbacks of some of Biden’s signature achievements on clean energy and electric vehicles.​

This is what the article says. It's two separate clauses, that don't even specify a quid pro quo, that I wouldn't be shocked to see framed this way to make Trump look bad. People don't like Trump and people don't like oil so it is a problem.
 
Islam Imamate said:
The quid pro quo is what makes it different. Maybe this interaction didn't go as is alleged and this story is a nothingburger but if true I think its quite concerning. Then again its exactly the kind of thing one should expect of Trump at this point.
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There's also no common-good argument here. "Give me money and I'll allow you to pollute more" is very different from, like, "we agree that we should do more to promote full employment or make it easy for people to get healthcare so help me." Even the standard GOP pitch is to claim that tax cuts for the rich supercharge the economy and gov't assistance for kids' food makes them "dependent."
 
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