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The dangers of foreign influence over our government and foreign money infiltrating our elections have been a concern in the United States since the very beginning of our constitutional republic. In Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton described corruption as one of the "deadly adversaries of republican government…chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils."
This is one of the reasons why the U.S. Constitution allows only natural-born U.S. citizens to hold the office of the presidency. It’s also a reason why it’s illegal for candidates for federal office to accept campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
A handful of Pennsylvania businesses are asking the Supreme Court to halt an order limiting which businesses can operate in the state amid the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Mark Tenally)
That being said, ever since President Barack Obama falsely attacked the U.S. Supreme Court for their decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission during his 2010 State of the Union address, left-wingers have been knowingly spouting tall tales about the coming flood of corporate money that will surely take over our election system.
The left never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. Even phonier still is their laughable assertion that the Citizens United decision -- a decision about free speech and government censorship -- somehow made foreign money legal in American politics. Citizens United literally had nothing to do with foreign money -- it was illegal then and it’s illegal now.
FILE – Former President Barack Obama looks on as President Biden speaks duding an event about the Affordable Care Act, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Obama’s big lie about Citizens United created a chain reaction of lies still echoing among liberal activists and their political allies in the mainstream media today. When President Obama stated that "the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections," he started an irresponsible politicization of the high court that did damage to the separation of powers and our system of government that we’re now feeling tenfold.
When Associate Justice Samuel Alito mouthed "that’s untrue" from the well of the U.S. House of Representatives in response to Obama’s whopper, he was right.
FILE – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito addresses the audience during the "The Emergency Docket" lecture Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021 in the McCartan Courtroom at the University of Notre Dame Law School in South Bend, Ind. (Michael Caterina /South Bend Tribune via AP)
According to a report from the watchdog Open Secrets, the scare tactics from President Obama and the left are unfounded. The report, which analyzed the impact of the Citizens United decision on the eve of its 10 year anniversary, found that "despite fears that elections would be dominated by corporations, the biggest political players are actually wealthy individual donors…Major corporations didn’t take full advantage of their new political powers. Corporations accounted for no more than one-tenth of independent groups’ fundraising in each election cycle since the ruling."
PELOSI-ALIGNED DARK MONEY NONPROFIT RECEIVED $3 MILLION FROM GROUP FUELED BY SWISS BILLIONAIRE
Despite these non-partisan findings, the left continues to perpetrate their core falsehood about Citizens United. Just last month former Clinton Labor Secretary and University of California, Berkeley Professor Robert Reich penned an op-ed stating, "The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission opened the gates. It allows foreigners to influence U.S. elections through their investments in politically active American corporations."
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
As previously outlined, this was false then and it’s false now. The left is ruthlessly calculating and nothing is done by mistake. So, what’s the rationale for their latest phony anti-Citizens United push?
Perhaps we’re witnessing the Democrats’ latest edition of "accuse the other side of what we’re doing" because they’re in need of a distraction from reality.
Recent headlines concerning major liberal donor Hansjorg Wyss such as "Pelosi-aligned dark money nonprofit received $3 million from group fueled by Swiss billionaire," "Liberal Dark Money Group Bankrolled by Foreign Billionaire Gave Millions to Stacey Abrams’s Voting Nonprofit," and "Swiss billionaire behind Dem ‘dark money’ donations despite not being US citizen" are raising eyebrows because they shine a bright light on the left’s stunning hypocrisy and dishonesty.
FILE – Former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg (L) and philanthropist Hansjorg Wyss attend Oceana's 2015 New York City benefit at Four Seasons Restaurant on April 1, 2015 in New York City. (Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Oceana)
Examples of Democrat foreign campaign cash abuse are hardly something new. As the former Chief Investigator for the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight during the Clinton administration, I had a front row seat tracking the wire transfers coming from foreign interests all over Asia -- including Communist China -- that ended up in the bank accounts of straw donors to the Democrat National Committee and 1996 Clinton re-election campaign.
The Department of Justice charged more than two dozen individuals with crimes in conjunction with this probe, including longtime Clinton friend James Riady.
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In a press release at the time DOJ stated that "Riady will pay a record $8.6 million in criminal fines and plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the United States by unlawfully reimbursing campaign donors with foreign corporate funds."
These are far from the only examples of the Democrats’ foreign influence problems. Who can forget Fang Fang, the Chinese spy who infiltrated California Congressman Eric Swalwell’s operation?
Curious minds are still wondering why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose to allow her good friend Swalwell to keep receiving state secrets as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
An even more egregious example of a politician compromised by his family’s foreign business dealings is no other than President Joe Biden himself. Hunter Biden’s extensive and lucrative business dealings in China, Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere should be of great concern to every American. You can rest assured that every foreign intelligence agency in the world has a copy of the contents of his infamous laptop by now.
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So, when it comes to big corporations taking over our elections, it still hasn’t happened. And when it comes to foreign influence, foreign money, and being compromised by foreign actors, today’s Democrats take a backseat to no one.
Hamilton knew what he was talking about.
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