In a debate in which his opponent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) referred to the Koch brothers twelve times, Sen. Ted. Cruz (R-TX) wrecked Democrats’ attempts to “scaremonger” about the dangers of big money in politics.
Political funding for Democrats and the broader left eclipses that for Republicans and the broader right, said Cruz on Wednesday during a CNN-hosted town hall debate in Washington, D.C.
Cruz noted that the largest political donors primarily fund Democrats:
You know, there’s a pattern you see of Democrats, which is they try to scaremonger. And so their latest villain is the Koch brothers, and they say this money and politics is what it’s all about.
But, you know, John Adams said facts are stubborn things. Here are some facts. You look at 2014. In 2014, of the top 20 groups that gave money to politics, I guess listening to Bernie they were all Republican, no? That’s not the case. Sixteen of the top 20 gave primarily to Democrats.
The top six, ActBlue, Tom Steyer, the Carpenters and Joiners Union, the City of New York, the Democratic Governors Association, the NEA, gave almost exclusively to Democrats. Where did these mysterious Koch brothers fall on the list? Number 59.
Cruz did not describe the operational budgets of news media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, or BuzzFeed as broadly funding Democrat and left-wing political agitation.
Democrats received more direct funding than Republicans in 2016, via Open Secrets:
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Sanders pushed a Marxist narrative, framing Cruz and Republicans as defenders of the “1%” in the context of class warfare with “working families.”
Sanders referred to the Koch brothers twelve times in deriding “tax breaks for billionaires” and “the rich,” while defending the “estate tax.”
Cruz described Sanders and fellow neo-Marxist traveler Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MS) as “the heart of the Democratic Party.”
Watch some of Cruz’s comments below.
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