Several weeks ago, it was revealed that former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, an anti-Trump Republican, would be speaking at the Democratic National Convention, slated to begin Monday night. Earlier Monday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced more Republicans that would be speaking. As Johnny Verhovek of ABC News reports:
The three new Republicans slated to speak at the convention -- Christine (left) and Meg Whitman (center), as well as Molinari (right) -- all either have or have had ties to companies that have contributed to either the DNC or to former Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Since leaving office as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003, Christine Whitman has been a member of the board of directors of Texas Instruments (TI) and United Technologies (UTC, now Raytheon Technologies). Cynthia Trochu, the general counsel for TI, is a Biden donor, having contributed a total of $3,872.82 to his campaign committee, as well as $1,000 to the Biden Victory Fund. Meanwhile, Raytheon corporate affairs and communications vice president Pamela Wickham has contributed $8,450 to Biden, as well as $2,000 to the DNC.
Meg Whitman, currently the CEO of Quibi, has given $2,800 to Biden's campaign committee, and $505,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, while the DNC has taken $1,000 from the company's corporate communications head, Gina Shoehalter.
Molinari, until less than two years ago, was Google's vice president of public policy as well as a lobbyist for the company. The Biden Victory Fund has taken $13,600 from Vint Cerf, currently one of the company's vice presidents. Meanwhile, former Google CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt has donated $355,000 to the DNC, and $523,950 to the Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, the DNC's fundraising arm with the Democratic parties' of the individual states and the District of Columbia.
The decision from the DNC to include several Republican speakers has been particularly controversial due to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) only being given a one-minute speaking slot, and the committee initially not allowing entrepreneur and former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang to speak.
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