The Wall Street billionaire who was announced as giving his biggest donation to the University of Oxford “since the Renaissance” made campaign contributions during the election cycle to seven of the Republican lawmakers who later voted to block the 2020 election results and candidates supported late last year, even as they contested Joe Biden’s victory.
Stephen Schwarzman, the founder and CEO of Blackstone Group, also financially supported a campaign group – Georgians for Kelly Loeffler, who allegedly later published a Facebook ad covering the skin of Loeffler’s Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock. darkened.
While Schwarzman has been praised for his philanthropy, which has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Oxford, Yale University, MIT and the New York Public Library, the financial support billionaires like Schwarzman, Richard Uihlein and Jeffrey Yass have given to Trump and other right-wing Republicans in faced the violent uprising by Trump supporters on January 6 on the American Capitol.
In the months leading up to Joe Biden’s election in November, Trump did not commit to a peaceful transfer of power or promise to respect the election results. The former president has – for a second time – been indicted in the House of Representatives for inciting the violence that engulfed the Capitol on 6 January.
Hours after the riot, in which five people were killed, including a police officer, 147 Republicans voted to invalidate the 2020 election.
Public records show Schwarzman donated about $ 33.5 million to Republican-backed groups in the 2020 election cycle, including $ 3 million to Trump’s America First Action Pac, a donation he made in January 2020. Schwarzman also donated funds to political action committees that support seven Republicans, who, months later, voted to invalidate the results in Pennsylvania and Arizona, a move seen as a direct insult to the votes of blacks and other minority Americans. whose support was critical to Joe Biden’s victory.
According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, Schwarzman was the third-largest individual donor to Republican “aggrieved,” and the eighth-largest megadonor in the 2020 election cycle. The late Sheldon Adelson made the list of mega-donors, followed by two liberal donors: Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer.
Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump campaign group that sharply criticized the largest Republican donors, said when asked about Schwarzman’s record: ‘There are few people who are more direct to candidates. dealing with the poisoning of American democracy. ”
Schwarzman himself is no stranger to controversy. In 2010, the CEO apologized for making an “inappropriate analogy” when he compared Barack Obama’s plan to tax private equity businesses to the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.
In response to questions from the Guardian, a Schwarzman spokesman stressed that the CEO’s last donation to Trump’s presidential campaign was in January 2020, long before the former president was accused of inciting an uprising, and that the two have not spoken in more than six years. months “.
Schwarzman’s spokesman also stressed that his help “is purely about issues related to economic policy and trade, not politics”.
But Trump was engaged in controversial and racist rhetoric long before January 2020. Documented incidents include embracing the former president’s birtherism, his initial defense of right-wing protest rallies in Charlottesville, his Muslim ban on immigrants, his argument that migrants from Africa- countries and Haiti comes from “land of land art”, his statement that four progressive democratic congresswomen “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-ridden places they came from”, and his close association with advisers who embrace white supremacy .
A spokesman for Schwarzman said: “Of course Steve finds these statements offensive and does not agree with them. As has been publicly reported, Steve did not hesitate to weigh areas in which he did not disagree with President Trump.” said Schwarzman supported Trump during the Democratic primary because he believed his “policy and economic agenda were the best way forward.”
While some billionaires – like Richard Uihlein of the Uline packaging company – have a record of donating to the far-right Republican groups, Schwarzman’s record is mixed. Public records show he donated the most to Republicans who – eventually – acknowledged and confirmed Biden’s victory, including Joni Ernst and Rob Portman. He also made campaign donations to Liz Cheney, one of the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted in the House of Representatives to accuse the president.
A spokesman for Schwarzman pointed out that the CEO’s donations to other Republicans outweigh his donations to Trump.
But in the past, Schwarzman has also donated to some of Trump’s strongest allies on Capitol Hill, including: Devin Nunes and Andy Harris, who were recently stopped by police from bringing a hidden firearm to the floor of the House of Representatives.
Seven of the Republicans whose campaigns financially supported Schwarzman in 2020 finally voted to reverse the election results. These donations were made early in the 2020 cycle.
In September 2020, Schwarzman also donated $ 5,600 to Georgians for Kelly Loeffler, the former Republican senator’s political action committee. Months later, in December, when Loeffler faced a special election against her Democratic opponent Raphael Warnock, the group posted an ad on Facebook alleging that Warnock’s skin had darkened. The issue was reported by Salon at the time. Loeffler’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
There is no evidence that Schwarzman had a role in the advertisement or that he was aware of it, or approved or endorsed it.
Schwarzman’s steadfast loyalty to Trump was described in a recent article in the New York Times, which points to the Wall Street financier’s access to world leaders in his former role as adviser to the president, including a Saudi investment commitment. -Arabia. The article also notes that Schwarzman weighs the policy areas where he disagrees with Trump and, according to Blackstone colleagues, tries to talk him out of his more extreme positions. He allegedly called for the continuation of Daca, the immigration program that Trump wanted to end, and protested, but did not convince Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement.
A report in the Financial Times in the days after the US election in November claims that Schwarzman defended Trump privately, while others became concerned about the former president’s allegations that the election was stolen.
At the time, Blackstone told the FT that ‘[Schwarzman] believes that the electoral system is healthy and that the democratic process will take place in an orderly and legal manner, as has happened throughout the history of our country ”.
After the November election, it becomes clear that control of the U.S. Senate will be determined by two by-elections in Georgia, where Loeffler and his fellow Republican David Perdue faced two Democratic opponents.
As Georgia tipped Biden in favor of the November election, the two Republican senators in Georgia demanded that Georgia’s Republican secretary of state resign and make baseless allegations that official Brad Raffensperger did not hold “fair and transparent elections.” .
Billionaires, including Rupert Murdoch, began pouring donations into the Republican-controlled Senate Leadership Fund to bolster Loeffler and Perdue’s campaigns. One of the largest was the $ 15 million donation from Schwarzman, recorded in public documents on November 12, three days after Loeffler and Perdue’s unfounded challenge to Raffensperger. Loeffler would later appear on stage alongside rising judge Marjorie Taylor Greene, a newly elected Georgia congresswoman who believes QAnon conspiracy theories.
Then, on November 23, three weeks after the election, Schwarzman issued a statement acknowledging that Biden had won. He said: ‘In my remarks three days after the election, I tried to be a voice of reason and express why it is in the national interest that all Americans believe that the election is resolved correctly. But the outcome is very certain today, and the country needs to move on. ”
He promised to help the new Democratic president ‘rebuild our economy after the Covid’.
On January 6, Schwarzman issued a further public statement in response to the riot at the Capitol, saying he was “shocked and appalled by the mob’s attempt to undermine our constitution … the outcome of the election is very clear and there must be a peaceful transition. of force ”.
A spokesman for Schwarzman said: “Steve made it clear in a public statement in November, long before the College of Elections’ certification in January, that President Joe Biden had won the election and that he was ready for the new president. to help in any way. This was followed by a deeply personal statement expressing his dismay and disgust at the appalling uprising that followed President Trump’s remarks on January 6. ”
The spokesman added: ‘Steve was a lifelong Republican and his last donation to the campaign was January 2020, before President Biden won a single by-election. As Steve’s previous statement makes clear, he strongly condemns the heinous attempts to undermine our constitution. ”
The Guardian has asked Oxford, Yale and MIT to comment on Schwarzman’s record of support for Trump and his political donations. Only one institution – Yale, where Schwarzman attended university and donated $ 150 million – defends Schwarzman’s political activity.
‘Mr. Schwarzman did not stand by Trump because he rejected the election results. On November 23, Schwarzman said the outcome of the election was clear and that he was ready to help President Biden and his team rebuild our economy. On January 6, he, like other heads of corporations, condemned the violence at the Capitol, “said the Yale spokesman.
An Oxford spokesman declined to comment specifically on Schwarzman’s record of political donations.
The Oxford spokesman said: “Mr Schwarzman has been approved by our rigorous due diligence procedures that take into account ethical, legal, financial and reputational issues. All donation decisions are made by the University’s donation and research funding committee, with members of Oxford academics with expertise in relevant areas such as ethics, law and business. ”
Schwarzman’s £ 150 million donation to Oxford, launched in 2019, will be used to create the Schwarzman Center for the Humanities, including a building that will bear the full name of the private equity CEO.
A MIT spokesman, who received $ 250 million from Schwarzman, did not comment on questions about Schwarzman’s values or his political donations, but said: “What brings our community together is mutual respect and a commitment to science, technological innovation and the pursuit of knowledge. ”