by Catherine Smith
Breitbart reports “Democrat Joe Biden has stacked his transition team, after the establishment media called the presidential election for him, with at least 40 lobbyists, according to the latest estimate.”
In an Iowa town hall in 2007, Biden called lobbyists and special interest groups “corrosive.”
“Lobbyists aren’t bad people,” Biden says in the C-Span footage. “Special interest groups are not bad people. But guess what? They’re corrosive. People who accept the money from them aren’t bad people. But it’s human nature.”
“ If you, Lynn, bundle $250,000 for me, all legal, and then you call me after I’m elected and say, ‘Joe, I’d like to talk to you about something. You didn’t buy me. But it’s human nature, you helped me, I’m going to say, ‘Sure, Lynn, come on in,’” he explained.
“Just like, by the way, if I turn around and I’m elected president of the United States of America, and you call me and say, Joe, I want to come and see you, I’m going to see you. You helped me,” Biden says.
Last year, Biden began accepting donations from registered lobbyists at Google, Lockheed Martin, and giant pharmaceutical corporations before his super PAC was established by lobbyists, according to Breitbart.
As per Breitbart, Biden, acting as president-elect though the election has not been certified, has given waivers to at least five registered lobbyists to join his transition team and another at least 35 former lobbyists have joined, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Five people on the teams are currently registered as lobbyists or were registered within the last year, according to the Journal’s analysis. [Emphasis added]
In addition, the Journal identified 35 people who had registered as lobbyists prior to this year and who do not need special approval to work on the transition. Those individuals lobbied for a range of companies, unions and advocacy groups—from BP America, Inc. and a company that owns private prisons to the Environmental Defense Fund and the American Federation of Teachers. Some haven’t lobbied for more than a decade, while others lobbied in recent years. [Emphasis added]
“Biden’s transition team is shaping up to be a typical Washington, D.C., beltway-style effort with not only lobbyists on board, but Big Tech corporations, and Wall Street — which both served as major donors to his campaign.”
“Former employees with Visa, KeyBank, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn, Amazon, Lyft, Airbnb, Google, Twitter, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have all been appointed to positions on Biden’s transition team,” according to Breitbart.
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Catherine Smith reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
