Tag: lobbyists

RFK Jr. TORCHES Bernie Sanders For Taking Big Pharma Donations

The crowd went wild with applause on Thursday after Donald Trump Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slammed hypocrite Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for taking millions of dollars from Big Pharma.

The moment came during day two of Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearing, where he told Sanders, “By the way Bernie, the problem with corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry.”

When the audience clapped in approval of RFK’s comment, Sanders angrily waved his hand in the air, saying, “Oh no! No, no, no, no… I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry, they came from workers.”

Kennedy responded, “In 2020 you were the single largest receiver of pharmaceutical money… Bernie, you were the single largest accepter of pharmaceutical dollars. $1.5 million.”

“Yeah, out of $200 million,” Sanders answered.

During Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Kennedy, the socialist senator launched into an unhinged tirade at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding baby clothes that celebrate not taking vaccines.

Highlighting Kennedy’s former group Children’s Health Defense (CHD) advertised baby clothing that said “Unvaxxed Unafraid” and “No Vax, No Problem” on its website, Sanders shouted, “ARE YOU SUPPORTIVE OF THESE ONESIES?!”

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Former ‘GMA Producer’ Accused of Taking Thousands from Florida Lobbying Firm for ‘Hit Job’ Interviews Sues NPR, Floodlight, and High-Profile Players

Freelance television producer Kristen Hentschel has filed a high-profile lawsuit against a web of powerful individuals and organizations, alleging that a conspiracy led to the destruction of her once-flourishing career.

The ‘Emmy-nominated producer’ accuses Jeffrey Pitts, a former CEO of the controversial consulting firm Matrix LLC, along with public relations powerhouse McNicholas & Associates, and prominent news outlets NPR and Floodlight, of orchestrating a campaign of defamation, false light, and invasion of privacy.

“Plaintiff Kristen Hentschel (“Plaintiff” or “Hentschel”) brings this action against Defendant Jeffrey Pitts (“Pitts”) for tortious interference with business relationships, defamation, false light, and invasion of privacy, against Defendant McNicholas & Associates, Inc. (“McNicholas”) for invasion of privacy and false light, and against Defendants National Public Radio, Inc. (“NPR”) and Floodlight, Inc. (“Floodlight”) for defamation and false light,” according to the court filing obtained by The Gateway Pundit.

Hentschel, who previously worked behind the scenes at ABC News, claims her professional and personal life became collateral damage in a power struggle between Pitts and Matrix’s owner, Joe Perkins.

The allegations center on Pitts, who allegedly “groomed” Hentschel to serve his interests before sacrificing her career to protect high-profile clients, including Florida Power & Light and Florida Crystals.

Hentschel contends that Pitts provided false information to media outlets, resulting in NPR and Floodlight publishing defamatory articles that irreparably damaged her reputation.

The stories, published in late 2022, accused Hentschel of unethical journalism practices, including leveraging her ABC credentials for corporate espionage—a claim she vehemently denies.

The Journalist’s Resource reported that the operations of Matrix LLC, a political consulting firm, and its alleged payments to local news outlets to shape coverage in favor of powerful clients, might have remained undisclosed if not for an anonymous whistleblower who leaked hundreds of internal documents in 2022.

The leaked trove included emails, financial ledgers, and other records that laid bare the firm’s covert tactics.

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INVESTIGATION: American “news” is mostly written by Israeli lobbyists pushing Zionist agenda

Mint Press News conducted an in-depth investigation into who writes America’s “news,” and the findings are shocking, though expected.

It turns out that hundreds of former Israeli lobbyists from groups like AIPAC (American-Israeli Political Action Committee), StandWithUs, and CAMERA are pretty much running the largest media organizations in the United States, including at MSNBC, The New York Times, CNN and Fox News.

Specifically with news related to the Israel-Palestine situation, these embedded Israeli lobbyists are steering what millions of Americans believe about what Israel really is and what is really going on in the Middle East right now.

“Many key U.S. newsroom staff were also formerly Israeli spies or intelligence agents, standing in stark contrast to journalists with pro-Palestine sentiments, who have been purged en masse since October 7, 2023,” reports Mint Press News.

While the Israel-Palestine conflict is about as old as time itself, it is a relatively new phenomenon for many Americans to learn that this conflict has now come to the United States via the “news.”

For years, Israeli lobbyists have controlled what gets published, most of it having a pro-Israel slant. Most people now seem to know that the corporate media is generally untrustworthy, but it is new information for them to learn that actual pro-Israel activists are the ones telling most of the stories about the Middle East.

According to Mint Press News, the job of these Israeli lobbyists is to “whitewash Israeli crimes and manufacture consent for continued U.S. participation in what a wide range of international organizations have described as a genocide.”

Take NBCUniversal, for instance, where journalist and associated producer Kayla Steinberg works. Back in 2018, Steinberg introduced herself to the world with an immediate admission that she is a Zionist through and through.

“The summer before my first year of college, I attended the AIPAC New England Leadership Dinner and absolutely loved it,” Steinberg said at the time.

“After going to Saban, I knew I had to get involved in [AIPAC] and go back to Israel … I dream of being a journalist someday, and I hope to write about Israel or Judaism. WIPAC and AIPAC have taught me so much about how important it is for the U.S. to be Israel’s greatest friend, and I know now why I am proudly pro-Israel.”

NBCUniversal hired “many” former Israeli lobbyists like Steinberg – and keep in mind that NBCUniversal is a conglomerate that owns all sorts of other well-known media outlets including CNBC, NBC News and MSNBC.

NBC reporter Emma Goss is another whose career in media began with a trip to Israel where she helped make a documentary for Write on For Israel.

“This Zionist group aims to educate young Jewish students to ‘make a difference on college campuses’ by learning about Jewish identity and anti-Semitism in American universities,” Mint Press News explains.

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Pharma, Big Ag Lobbyists Help U.S. Scuttle Global Plan to Cut Antibiotic Use in Industrial Meat Production

Targets to cut the use of antimicrobials in animal agriculture were dropped from a key United Nations (U.N.) political declaration following pushback from the agriculture and veterinary drug industry and meat-producing nations comprising the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The declaration is meant to commit countries to address surging resistance to antimicrobial medicines — a problem that kills nearly 1.3 million people globally in a single year, topping deaths from HIV and malaria combined.

On Sept. 26, global leaders will meet at the U.N. where they are expected to adopt the declaration. But without concrete targets, scientists, global leaders and politicians are concerned that governments won’t effectively address the problem.

In particular, they will fail to curb the use of antimicrobials in farm animals, which is spurring the development of resistance to critical medicines, they warn.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who is campaigning for improved control of antibiotics in food-producing animals in the U.S., said in a statement, “The massive overuse of antibiotics on factory farms in the United States is a serious threat to public health.”

“Federal agencies have a troubling history of deferring to corporate interests on this issue, and I am very concerned about any role that the United States played in weakening international commitments to reduce antibiotic use in farm animals,” he adds.

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‘Dance You Monkey’: Emails Show Biden Clean Air Official Took Commands From Chemical Lobbyist

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Joe Goffman to lead the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation on March 8, 2022. That same day, Goffman wrote to Rich Gold, a major Democratic donor and Holland & Knight lobbyist who represents clients including the American Chemistry Council, oil and gas companies, and the timber industry, to thank him.

“It’s live,” Goffman said of the job announcement, text messages reviewed by The Daily Wire show. “Will I ever be able to thank you enough?”

“Gotta get good people in these jobs,” the lobbyist said. “And need to chat next steps.”

Goffman said he would call the lobbyist “tomorrow morning so I can give you a heads up about something.”

Messages between Goffman and Gold, obtained by the watchdog group Functional Government Initiative under the Freedom of Information Act and shared with The Daily Wire, suggest that Goffman did pay the favor back. In the ensuing months, Goffman shared intimate information about dynamics within the EPA, and in one case promised to “pull a rabbit out of the hat” for Gold.

In June 2022, Gold complained that Goffman’s staff had cancelled a meeting with the American Forest & Paper Association, which paid Gold $200,000 the year prior. Goffman agreed to undo the cancellation, despite having important business to do that day.

“What do I need to do?” the EPA official asked the lobbyist.

“Dance you monkey, dance,” came the reply. “I”ll be there. With tomatoes.”

The messages do not explain what Gold did to help Goffman secure the nomination from Biden. Responding to this story, EPA spokesman Nick Conger told The Daily Wire “A wide array of people supported Joe Goffman prior to and following his nomination as Assistant Administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation. Mr. Goffman engages regularly with a variety of stakeholders – including those from the regulated community – as part of his work to protect public health and the environment.” Goffman did not comment.

The relationship is an example of the “revolving door” in which entrenched Washington insiders use connections made from brief stints in government to fuel lucrative careers peddling access to their successors. Gold worked as a special assistant to the EPA administrator from 1993 to 1994, and has been a lobbyist ever since.

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Israel lobby spends millions to unseat US lawmaker critical of Gaza war

The pro-Israel lobby in the US is pouring millions into a campaign to unseat an African-American Congresswoman from Missouri, Cori Bush, as part of a broader effort to replace critics of Israel’s war in Gaza with more Israel-friendly Democrats, The Washington Post reported on 6 August.

“It’s because I called for a cease-fire in Gaza,” Bush told a potential voter as she campaigned door-to-door in her district. “That’s where all of this started.”

Bush is facing a tight primary contest Tuesday against St Louis County Prosecutor and fellow African-American and Democrat Wesley Bell, who is supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest and most powerful pro-Israel group in the US.

Whoever wins the primary will run against the Republican party’s candidate for the congressional seat in November.

Outside groups have already spent over $15 million in Missouri’s 1st Congressional district race, with 80 percent of the funds going toward ads opposing Bush and supporting her AIPAC-backed opponent.

In June, AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups spent $17 million to help defeat another progressive African-American member of the US Congress who was critical of the Gaza war, Democrat Jamaal Bowman from New York.

The Washington Post adds that the National Black Empowerment Action Fund (NBEA), founded by AIPAC veteran Darius Jones, donated $1 million to the campaign against Bush last week.

Most of the voters in Bush’s district with whom the Washington Post spoke said they did not know that AIPAC and other Israel lobby groups were so involved in tipping the race.

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USDA Adds Another Hemp Industry Representative To Trade Committee To Promote The Crop Globally

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have added another hemp industry executive to a federal trade advisory committee to help bolster efforts to promote U.S.-grown cannabis around the world.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and USTR Representative Katherine Tai announced on Thursday that they have appointed Dylan Summers, vice president of government affairs for the CBD company Lazarus Naturals, to their Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Trade in Tobacco, Cotton, Peanuts and Hemp.

Summers is one of four hemp industry stakeholders on the 14-member ATAC, alongside National Industrial Hemp Council (NIHC) President Patrick Atagi, NIHC board member Patricia Sheikh and the Oregon Hemp Commission’s Eric Pike, who also founded the CBD company Root Origins.

The ATAC focused on tobacco, cotton, peanuts and hemp is one of six advisory committees under USDA and USTRE that offer the government technical advice about specific agricultural commodities and products.

A former marketing executive at NIHC, Kevin Latner, was appointed to a separate ATAC focused on processed foods in 2020. But he’s since left NIHC and is now affiliated with a group that deals with leather materials, while still serving on the committee.

As the latest member, Summers will serve as a hemp representative on the ATAC until at least 2028.

“The advisory committee system was created by Congress to ensure that U.S. agricultural stakeholders have input and insight into U.S. trade policy and negotiating objectives,” USDA said in an advisory. “Applications for committee membership are encouraged at any time and will be considered for future appointments.”

In recognition of hemp’s growing role in the agriculture sector, USDA and USTR formally renamed the ATAC to include last year to include the name of the crop. Previously, the first hemp appointees served on what was then called the ATAC for Trade in Tobacco, Cotton and Peanuts.

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Israel Lobby Funded Half of New UK Cabinet

Pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified can reveal.

The list of recipients includes Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner,  Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Jonathan Reynolds, who will oversee arms exports to Israel as U.K. trade secretary, is another beneficiary, alongside Labour’s election mastermind Pat McFadden, whose responsibilities now include national security.  

Some of the donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region.

Reeves, McFadden, Reynolds and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle were recently listed as vice-chairs of LFI.

Other major funders include pro-Israel businessmen Gary Lubner, Trevor Chinn, and Stuart Roden.

The total value of the donations amounts to over £600,000.

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Time for outrage over Israel’s meddling in European affairs

Lobbying for Israel can be lucrative.

David Siegel heads the organization called Friends of the European Leadership Network. He commands an annual salary exceeding $350,000.

Over the past few days, Siegel has been thanking those Western politicians who are willing to criticize the International Criminal Court after its chief prosecutor sought warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, as well as leading players in Hamas. Outrage at the ICC’s move is proof of “moral clarity,” Siegel has contended.

Siegel has spent most of his career working for the Israeli government and the lobby which backs it up. Before taking up his current position, he was Israel’s top representative in the southwestern United States (a region that includes California, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii).

Friends of the European Leadership Network – based in Skokie, a Chicago suburb – helps marshal elite support for Israel.

According to a “transparency register” run by the Brussels bureaucracy, Siegel’s outfit finances almost the entire budget of the European Leadership Network (Elnet), a key pro-Israel group.

It is no accident that Elnet is funded primarily from the US. For years, Elnet has copied the modus operandi of the Israeli lobby across the Atlantic.

A core activity has been buying influence from lawmakers and other establishment figures by bringing them on expenses-paid propaganda trips.

More than 20 such visits to the Middle East have been organized by Elnet since Israel began its genocidal war against Gaza in October.

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Lobbyists Call For Increased Digital ID Funding

Washington-based Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) has called for more money to be set aside for digital public infrastructure (DPI) including one of its elements, digital ID – and this means not only the funds earmarked for the technology portion of it.

Currently, DPI projects can count on $400 million by the end of the decade – that is the figure “stakeholders” have already committed to “the cause.”

Essentially, DIAL is advocating for money to be steadily spent on promotion of its mission via seemingly “trustworthy” messengers such as civil societies, academics, etc. Apparently, this would also allow their participation in governance, as well as the design and deployment of various DPIs.

Among those sitting on DIAL’s board are the director of USAI, an organization known for its involvement in setting up the digital ID in Ukraine, as well as the president and CEO of the UN Foundation, and a Gates Foundation senior adviser.

In what reports say is an expert comment, originally published in late September, DIAL wants this financing to be “sustainable,” and claims that not just businesses and economies, but also individuals, would reap the benefits.

Other than places like Ukraine, DIAL is “probing” and basing its comments drawn from a report compiled in Sierra Leone in Africa, and others, while those “interviewed” are 25 groups and entities.

Among them are government representatives of said countries, but also the Gates Foundation, UN’s UNDP agency, the World Bank, and the Africa Digital Rights Hub.

DIAL wants to see money spent on coordination between ministries, while “communities need to be engaged early on, particularly those that are more likely to be excluded,” say reports.

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