The White House featured billionaire and Joe Biden-supporter Mark Cuban at a healthcare event on Monday, a team-up that could spell trouble for bipartisan priorities due to the billionaire’s recent high-profile defense of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that have become toxic with conservatives.
Cuban, who has a pharmaceutical company that claims it is seeking to make medicines more accessible and affordable, spoke during a roundtable discussion focused on pharmacy benefit managers, better known as PBMs, that Biden administration officials argue are “prescription drug middlemen” that should be subject to more transparency in a bid to lower Rx costs.
There is a bipartisan push in Washington, D.C., to implement new restrictions on PBMs, but the involvement of Cuban — who on Monday also revealed he would back Biden for re-election in a face-off against former President Donald Trump — could make it an increasingly partisan fight. Cuban has caused a stir in the political sphere in recent months with his comments on DEI initiatives that conservatives and other detractors have lambasted as discriminatory.
In January, as reported by The Daily Wire, Cuban and fellow billionaire Elon Musk got into a social media spat over the controversial race-based hiring practice. Whereas Musk said DEI is “just another word for racism,” Cuban argued that the principles of DEI are good for businesses as well as employees.
Cuban, who used to be viewed as a political centrist, elicited more blowback a few weeks later with yet another post to X related to DEI.
“I only ever hire the person that will put my business in the best position to succeed,” Cuban said. “And yes, race and gender can be part of the equation. I view diversity as a competitive advantage.”
He received a response from Andrea Lucas, a commissioner for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is tasked with enforcing federal laws that make it illegal for discrimination against job applicants or workers based on their sex, race, religion, and more.
“If any employer, whether private or public, uses race or sex or any other protected characteristic, particularly race or sex, as any factor in their decision-making process for any employment decision then they’ve violated Title VII and an employee that’s been harmed can file a complaint with the EEOC and then if they get a right to sue letter, they can file in federal court,” Lucas told Fox News.
Cuban’s social media commentary, particularly when it comes to DEI, has generated some consternation among the offices of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
According to conversations The Daily Wire had with some GOP Senate staffers on Monday, any White House initiative that involves Cuban is a turnoff for Republicans — a sentiment that could extend to PBM reforms being considered by the Biden administration and Congress.
One source said Cuban used to be viewed by Republican staffers as more “neutral” and someone who valued hard work, but is now not as well liked and seen as a “creature of the Left” as evidenced by his “activism” in favor of DEI.
“I can’t stand Mark Cuban. I saw the White House is trotting him out … He’s the worst possible spokesperson for them,” another staffer said.
The second GOP staffer added, “I don’t know that much about PBMs but if Mark Cuban is against them, then I’m for them.”
Cuban cast a “protest vote against” Trump in the Texas GOP primary by casting a ballot for primary opponent Nikki Haley. He said he would not vote for Trump, even if Biden was literally on his deathbed.
“If they were having his last wake, and it was him versus Trump, and he was being given last rites, I would still vote for Joe Biden,” Cuban told Bloomberg News, alluding to concerns about the 81-year-old president’s age that have dogged his re-election campaign.