AT&T and Comcast — parent companies of Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal — have joined a growing list of companies that are refusing to donate to members of Congress who sought to overturn the election results last week.
The move comes less than a week after rioters loyal to President Trump stormed the Capitol, leaving five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer. Many members of Congress — including Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — echoed the President’s claims that the election had been stolen, and lent credibility to the idea that Congress had the power to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
The House of Representatives is now preparing to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection, with a vote expected on Wednesday.
The move by companies to cut off contributions also comes as Democrats prepare to take both the White House and the Senate.
In a statement, Comcast said it would “suspend” contributions to election officials who voted last week to reject the votes of Pennsylvania and Arizona.
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“The peaceful transition of power is a foundation of America’s democracy,” the cable giant said in a statement. “This year, that transition will take place among some of the most challenging conditions in modern history and against the backdrop of the appalling violence we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol last week. At this crucial time, our focus needs to be on working together for the good of the entire nation. Consistent with this view, we will suspend all of our political contributions to those elected officials who voted against certification of the electoral college votes, which will give us the opportunity to review our political giving policies and practices.”
AT&T issued a similar statement.
“Employees on our Federal PAC board convened a call today and decided to suspend contributions to members of Congress who voted to object to the certification of Electoral College votes last week,” the company said.
Popular Information, which as been tracking corporate PAC contributions, reported before the vote that AT&T’s PAC had given more than $2 million over the last six years to members who were threatening to vote against certification.
Several senators backed down after the rioters stormed the Capitol building. Still, 138 representatives and seven senators voted to reject Biden’s win in Pennsylvania and 121 representatives and six senators voted to reject the result in Arizona.
Other companies that will suspend contributions include Marriott International, JP Morgan, Blue Cross Blue Shield, ConocoPhillips, Dow Inc., Facebook, and Citigroup, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amazon, Google and Microsoft also said they would suspend contributions. Some companies, like Google and Facebook, said they would pause all contributions while they assessed the situation. Some also said the pause would last for the first quarter of 2021, but did not commit to suspending beyond that.
