Democrat senators who received donations from Biden FCC nominee haven't committed to recusal | Just The News
By: Nicholas Ballasy (Just The News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Democratic senators who received contributions from President Biden's nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, Gigi Sohn, while her nomination was under consideration haven't said whether they are going to recuse themselves from voting on her confirmation.
Her third confirmation hearing since Biden nominated her in October 2021 took place on Tuesday. The committee has yet to vote on her nomination.
Under questioning from Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sohn said she doesn't think it was inappropriate to donate to Democratic senators while her nomination was pending.
Cruz noted that Sohn made over $1,000 in donations to senators, some of whom have been critical of her nomination
"Do you believe it was poor judgment to give 12 separate political contributions to Democrat senators while your nomination was pending?" Cruz asked.
"I'm a citizen who just wanted to participate in the democratic process," Sohn replied. "Relatively small donations, no I don't."
The senators who received the donations include Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who sits on the Commerce Committee considering her nomination, Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
"I've been in the Senate ten years," said Cruz. "I have never seen a nominee make contributions to senators while your nomination is pending. I've never seen that once. I had my staff search the records, if we could find anyone in the Trump administration who had done that. My staff was unable to find that."
The American Accountability Foundation has called on the four senators to recuse themselves from voting on her confirmation.
"Ms. Sohn's donations to your campaigns and your acceptance of her contributions during the pendency of her confirmation have irrevocably corrupted the decision-making process and made an objective vote on her confirmation impossible," the organization's president, Thomas Jones, wrote in a letter last week to the four.
"As the Senate Ethics Manual rightly points out," he noted, "'The public has a right to expect Members, officers, and employees to exercise impartial judgment in performing their duties. The receipt of gifts, entertainment, or favors from certain persons or interests may interfere with this impartial judgment, or may create an appearance of impropriety that may undermine the public's faith in government.'
"While Ms. Sohn's donations were not illegal, they were unethical. The campaign contributions will undermine the people's confidence in your and her decisions by creating the perception that campaign contributions are part of lawmaker's decision-making process to support her, and that Ms. Sohn has a bias towards certain lawmakers, those who she has donated to, and is incapable of rendering impartial decisions" at the FCC.
Sohn also contributed $2,900 to President Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.
Republican senators blasted Sohn for her past controversial statements, including describing Fox News as "state-sponsored propaganda."
Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan asked Sohn if she stands by her description of Fox News.
"The FCC doesn't have jurisdiction over Fox News," she replied.
Sohn said she wouldn't recuse herself from any matters related to Fox News if they came before the FCC.
Sohn also asked her Twitter followers to donate to liberal nonprofit Fight for the Future, which paid for billboards that referred to certain senators on both sides of the aisle as corrupt. Cruz described her tweets as a fundraising effort for the group, but she rejected that characterization.
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It appears Democrats are having a problem with ethics.
Ethics and ideas. I heard this radical on C-Span yesterday. Is it any wonder that Bernie Sanders is now content to ride off into the sunset?
But which of his many houses will that good socialist choose to live at?
While collecting his lifetime tax payer funded pension and health care.
I am sure that CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, and ABC will eagerly fork over thousands in special guest fees- if Sanders decides he is hurting for money after retirement.
There are 3, the main house in Burlington with 4 (gasp) bedrooms, the cottage with (yikes!) linoleum, hardwood, and vinyl flooring and the pieds-a-terre in DC which is no bigger than 2 stacked containers.
Publish 6 books and maybe you will have the wherewithal to buy him out.
Never has a millionaire socialist lived up to his ideals so heroically by limiting himself to only three small houses.
who just wanted to participate in the democratic process,
So, this person believes that attempting to curry the favor of selectors with bribes is part of the democratic process.
Not a good choice.
"Sohn made over $1,000 in donations to senators"
" Sohn also contributed $2,900 to President Biden's 2020 presidential campaign"
Well shit! If I had known I could become the head of the FCC for $3,900 I wouldn't have spent my Christmas bonus differently this year! /s
Are you all really suggesting that our US Senators are selling favors for a couple hundred bucks in donations? You do notice he's being accused of giving a whopping total of $1000 in "donations" (plural) to "senators" as in multiple senators.
It is rather funny watching all the fans of the last President aka Grifter-in-chief who had so many ethics violations most people stopped counting get their panties in a wad over an FCC candidate who gave a couple hundred bucks to the campaigns of some Senators who likely didn't even notice.
If you guys are actually worried about conflicts of interest in the government here's some light reading for you.
President Trump’s 3,400 conflicts of interest - CREW | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (citizensforethics.org)
Republicans Blasted After Voting to 'Gut' House Ethics Office (newsweek.com)
You can stop pretending now that conservative Republicans give a fuck about ethics.
And this seeds comical attempt to paint Democrats as corrupt because of some embarrassingly miniscule campaign donations is just sad.
According to the article, it appears that way.
You do notice that it was only Democrats that had taken these donations while consideration was being given to the donator.
Not the subject of the article. Reel it back in.
Republican's ethics aren't in question here.
Where? Where is there any indication that the Senators who received a few hundred bucks in donations were even aware of the donations let alone an admission that they were accepting them as a 'favor' payment for their vote of approval?
Do you really believe that any Senator, Democrat or Republican, knows about every couple hundred dollar donation to their campaign or personally "accept" those levels of donations? There is zero indication that any of the Democratic Senators donated to even knew of the donations before Republicans started digging into the candidates background.
They're the ones questioning a supposed ethics violation while being ENORMOUS hypocrites who themselves take millions in donations from corporate backers and wealthy conservative PAC's and billionaires yet pretend there is no quid pro quo. The corporate lobbyists and billionaire backers aren't giving their money away for free to legislators with no expectation of return, and that is where the real ethics violations occur, not some FCC candidate who gave a few hundred bucks to a handful of Senators campaigns.
Does anyone REALLY believe, seriously, that Sohn donated to their campaigns a couple hundred bucks with an expectation that that would have an impact on their decision to vote for her or not? Really? If so then conspiracy theorist is too mild a description for the kind of crazy going on in that head.
"Why do you notice the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that speck in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the speck in your brother’s eye." - Luke 6:41-42
Did you not read the article? And if so, did you apply critical thinking skills?
Do you not understand that only the Democrats on the panel received the donations from the candidate? This brings their decision into question. If they vote for Ms. Sohn then the "donations" could be seen as a pay off. If they don't, it could be seen that the "donations" weren't high enough to effect a favorable decision.
And they are too stupid to see the problem with it.
Nobody can see what you deleted in #3.
What's good for goose is good for duck.
Let us know when the gop is willing to give up taking money from supporters...
Then you should keep to the topic. Which is Democrats taking donations. Not republicans. You want to talk about that, then put up your own article.
They certainly are in question here.
This is just another lying hit piece from far-right wing Just the News.
Did you read the article? Something tells me you didn't but felt the need to march in lockstep with everybody else who didn't read the article.
"The American Accountability Foundation"
A 'fine' clickbait organization without an ax to grind ... @!@
So you have proof that what the article is claiming is wrong? Please provide it.
Let me put it this way, the article is much ado about nothing, a squirrel by any other name. So how much did 'bad girl' of the week donate? $10,000 give or take? On the other side of the aisle Linda McMahon dished out $7,000,000.
The article is shit.
And yet you haven't disproven any of it.
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