Comcast executive to host Joe Biden fundraiser

[demmiblue]

Comcast's chief lobbyist David Cohen and his wife will be hosting a fundraiser for former Vice President Joe Biden Thursday, on the day he is expected to announce his third candidacy for the presidency.

Several of the vice president's supporters will also be attending the fundraiser, including Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, former Gov. Ed Rendell and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, as well as several members of Congress, mostly representing Pennsylvania. They include Reps. Brendan Boyle, Matt Cartwright, Madeleine Dean, Dwight Evans, Chrissy Houlahan, Mary Gay Scanlon, and Rep. Lisa Blunt Manchester, of Delaware.

Unlike many of his competitors, Biden is courting some of the party's traditional high-dollar donors to support his campaign, which is evident from the invitation to the fundraiser, obtained by CBS Philadelphia. The Cohens, along with cohosts who include top lobbyists and lawyers in Pennsylvania, are seeking donations of at least $2,800 to attend the fundraiser, though there is also a "young professional" donation level of $250 included on the invitation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/comcast-executive-to-host-joe-biden-fundraiser/

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

1. Thanks for posting... good to know.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[JackInGreen]

2. One of the reasons Joe is down my list

Is bullshit like that.

[George II]

5. "Bullshit" like what? At least he won't have 84% of of his contributions "unitemized", we'll know..

Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2019, 08:42 AM - Edit history (1)

...where it all comes from.

[lapucelle]

51. One of his hometown papers is already asking questions.

https://m.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/will-the-revolution-be-monetized-bernie-sanders-dark-money-org/Content?oid=27314628

[R B Garr]

70. Great find, lapucelle! Looks like a hometown paper

isn’t buying the distractions anymore. Their comments about Our Revolution are spot on.

[R B Garr]

69. This is the real news! Clean up those FEC flags--tell us where

the money came from. It’s about time!

[still_one]

77. and at least Biden's campaign doesn't hire three people to high positions who voted for Jill Stein,

and encouraged others to do so likewise

[BlueFlorida]

14. Not only can Biden express his views on Net Neutrality

he will be able to answer "How to address white supremacist violence" succinctly and cogently.

[George II]

17. And the concerns of WOC without falling back to a series of talking points.

[Demsrule86]

27. Yeah I was embarrassed by this.

[George II]

28. I forget who coined the phrase, but that was cringe worthy.

[Demsrule86]

46. Like watching an old I love Lucy rerun!

[UniteFightBack]

9. It's time for Democrats to get REAL and wipe that bullshit pie out your eye. nt

[Demsrule86]

41. I would like to know who Sanders overseas donations were from.

[Honeycombe8]

58. BS like what?

A candidate is having a fundraiser in what is a big state for him, so one of the big corporations headquartered in that state hosts it and foots the bill? Sounds good to me.

I suppose you're saying Democrats are supposed to hate all corporations?

I don't so think so. What I hate is BEHAVIOR. Not people or entities.

But it is true that Biden is more corporate friendly than some of the others. One of the reasons for that is he hails from Delaware, the king of the incorporation states.

[delisen]

60. but Comcast???? and means testing for ss and medicare??

It's early. Biden has lots of time to refine.

[Honeycombe8]

62. Means testing is one of the Democratic Party tweaks to saving SS.

Haven't heard about it re Medicare. The devil would be in the details. Yeah, I don't like the idea of it, either. I've read that it would change it to more of a welfare-type program, rather than a social program. We know what happens to welfare type programs in this country.

Like you say, it's early. It's not up to a President to tweak SS and Medicare, anyway. He'll go along with what the majority of Democrats in Congress decide, probably. Altho he can drive the conversation and push an agenda.

I find nothing unusual in Comcast hosting a big fundraiser in PA, since it's headquartered there and presumably a big employer there.

Democrats need donations by corporations, too, so there's also that. If we don't get big donations, we're at a disadvantage. Let's see where most of his funds come from. Even then, it's not his fault if the rank and file choose to support more progressive candidates.

I'm not sure how progressive or moderate he is. I'll see how the debates go.

The main thing for me is beating Trump. All the candidates are Democrats and support Democratic ideals and the party platform.

[StarfishSaver]

93. It's not Comcast. Cohen's doing this in his individual capacity

I've worked with him and he's not a bad person. Among other things, he's very supportive of minority communities and organizations.

Support from corporate leaders is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.

[George II]

89. The thing is a big corporation is neither hosting it nor footing the bill for it.

[m-lekktor]

61. Yep. My least favorite of them all. nt

[UniteFightBack]

68. That's OK...as long as he's on the list !!!! nt

[murielm99]

3. Good for you, Joe.

You may be our next President yet.

[Peacetrain]

4. We are going to need all the help we can get.. from all corners..

just a fact

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. Union-busting law firm chairman Steven Cozen is on the hosting committee too.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

20. Amazing isn't it?!?!...but Bernie released his taxes 5 minutes after he said he would!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[George II]

22. What does BS's tax returns have to do with a Biden fundraiser?

[ehrnst]

55. 5 minutes plus three years.

[George II]

21. So? Remember, no one, NO ONE, can contribute more than $2800. At least they'll be up front...

...with their contributions.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. So I think it's shitty when Democrats accept help from union-busters.

[George II]

26. But when all the dust settles, we'll know from whom most of his contributions come from....

....he won't have 84% of his money categorized as "unitemized", i.e., who knows where it came from.

[Demsrule86]

29. I think it is shitty that United exists but until the day we get rid of it, our candidates need

money. Biden was the poorest Senator he did not sell influence. We have to stop Trump.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

44. Thats 1 way to describe it. I'm guessin Joe will do the right thing & return the donation. He should

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[UniteFightBack]

63. And he is a horrible person? You know this guy? Everybody is evil that works there? Are there

any good folks employed there? The one track mind shit is maddening.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

65. When it comes to law firm's that are dedicated to busting unions, yeah,

I think everyone who works there is shitty.

[UniteFightBack]

66. Well if these shitty people are giving money it may as well be to us. nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

67. That is certainly one way to look at it.

[George II]

81. Reminiscent of the attacks on Obama's first Attorney General, Eric Holder....

....when he went to work after leaving the administration.

It also reminds me of the attacks on Sharice Davids because of the law firm she worked for, even though her specialty was helping the poor and native Americans.

[UniteFightBack]

10. GET THAT MONEY HONEY. NT

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

42. Yup, it's ALL about the money... follow the trail!!

Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2019, 01:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Go Vols]

45. +1

[shanny]

53. +2

[oasis]

11. Joe refuses to battle Trump with one hand tied behind his back.

Many purists who frowned on big money in politics couldn't bring themselves to vote for Hillary in the 2016 General Election. Now Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and Citizens United are here to stay.

[Demsrule86]

31. I agree . We can't get rid of United if we don't win.

[BlueFlorida]

12. Show of force in PA

Biden is already fortifying the strongholds that Hillary lost narrowly.

[Nanjeanne]

13. Don't forget Blue Cross CEO as well. Not a good look.

[George II]

18. Remember, no one can give more than $2800 (limit was recently raised from $2700) and....

....most of his contributors will be up front about how much they contribute.

[Demsrule86]

32. I don't care.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

43. Terrible look... it's amazing how some can turn a blind eye to dirty money in politics.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[delisen]

71. Biden is more traditional on healthcare.

[dalton99a]

15. Money is ammunition. Take it and use it.

We are in a fight for our lives

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

25. Guess that's one way to rationalize cozying up to big money interests...

Wonder why Bernie's fellow Democratic candidates have followed his lead in swearing off corporate PAC money and have refused to accept other questionable campaign donations??


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Demsrule86]

33. Yeah well...Sanders has money but still won't win a primary. I have no issue with contributions

from business.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

35. That's fine, I respect your position... but, it won't fly with the Democratic base, sorry.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[Demsrule86]

38. The Democratic base wants to win. I am boots on the ground, voting,working in every

election. I and others like me are the base. People understand you need money to win elections. This sort of thing was devestating in state and midterm elections.

[Demsrule86]

39. May the best person win!

[Demsrule86]

40. I would respectfully suggest that Sanders supporters stay away from this issue.

Not a good one for your candidate.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

59. Nor for yours.

[George II]

37. Followed his lead and "refused to accept other questionable campaign donations"? Sanders had....

.....about 100,000 contributions flagged by the FEC as improper or, as you say, "questionable", last time around.

He already has 29 contributors who have exceeded the maximum allowable contribution, only two months into the campaign. He's also accepted about 200 contributions from overseas. This is all available on the FEC website.

Who knows what's buried in that 84% of his contributions that are "unitemized"?

Let's hope Biden and our other candidates don't follow that lead.

[BannonsLiver]

48. The money will be put to good use

For starters, it’ll be used to help ensure Bernie is not the nominee.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

49. I wouldn't think Joe would use "big money" to divide the Democratic Party

but, I could be wrong... guess we'll soon see.


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[BannonsLiver]

50. You frame it however you want

All I care about are results.

[R B Garr]

73. It's clear who is trying to divide the party with

“big money” BS. I’m glad to see Democrats aren’t going to take it anymore.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

74. Tell that to the many leading Democratic candidates who are rejecting "big money" campaign donations

from interest groups, lobbyists, PACs, etc.


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[R B Garr]

75. Who cares about the BS games. No more phony talking

points when there is a lack of accountability and transparency from one campaign in particular. We are not fooled.

[George II]

88. Glad you put that in quotes.

[still_one]

80. From what I am observing there seems to be one campaign which is more involved in doing that then

the others

David Sirota, Nina Turner, and Bbriahna Joy Gray, all who voted for Jill Stein, and encouraged others to do likewise

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

82. No, Bernie's REJECTED "big money" interests & several of his fellow Democrats have followed his lead

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[still_one]

86. That wasn't what I was addressing regarding divisonary issues

[ehrnst]

54. Guess that's one way to avoid responding -attack a strawman... and you threw in a false equivalence.

A twofer!

[ecstatic]

16. I don't have a problem with this. Money is needed

to win the primaries and the GE. And critics can save the "millions of small donors" nonsense, as we have no idea where that money is really coming from.

[George II]

19. You hit the nail on the head. FEC regulations should be changed to make ALL contributions...

...itemized.

Plus, it's not millions of small "donors", it's millions of small donations, contributed in a manner to reduce the so-called "average" donation to a predetermined "average".

We have one candidate who already has more than 100 individual contributions from several people. The "average" is only $4.00 per contributION but the average per contributOR is $459! Those aren't "small contributors". There's also a single individual who has given the maximum of $2800, but in only a couple of months has done so by sending in 60 separate contributions. The "average" is $45 but has already hit the annual maximum.

[ecstatic]

91. Wow! Where are you able to see that information? nt

[George II]

92. It's all here:

https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00696948/?cycle=2020

You have to download the csv file for receipts, then do a little sorting (or pivot tables) in Excel. Before I retired I worked with more than 200,000 products as a Marketing Manager, sorting tens or hundreds of thousand records became second nature to me.

There's lots of hidden little nuggets in the candidates' quarterly filings. For example, here are the totals raised and the amount that is unitemized (i.e., unknown where they came from) for the top candidates (we'll have to wait until July to see details of Biden's numbers):

Sanders
$18,186,300.21
$15,282,029.00
84% unitemized

O'Rourke
$9,373,261.40
$5,542,641.00
59% unitemized

Warren
$6,016,435.38
$4,229,724.00
70% unitemized

Harris
$12,040,463.55
$4,420,828.00
37% unitemized

Booker
$5,103,710.09
$805,495.00
16% unitemized

Buttigieg
$7,086,154.62
$4,536,552.00
64% unitemized

[ecstatic]

100. Thank you. One more thing--does it show individual names and

are the people who are making numerous small donations mainly donating to Bernie? I don't think my 32b version of Excel can handle a really large file like that. lol.

[George II]

101. They show the name, address, occupation, and most of the time employer of all the itemized....

.....contributors along with the amount of each contribution and aggregate for the year.

Unfortunately what we don't get is any information about any "unitemized" contributions, which is a flaw in the FEC rules which I think MUST be fixed. I can't be sure, but I believe that Actblue itemizes everything, regardless of the size of the contribution (there are hundreds for candidates of only $1!)

Below, after weeding out the Actblue contributions (they show double), here are the counts. In some cases the number of records can be misleading, that's not an indication of the number of contributors - there are many multiples of contributions by the same people. Also shown are individual contributors. This gives a good idea of the number of multiple contributions (records minus contributors).

O'Rourke - 11500 records, 4900 contributors, 6600 multiples
Gillibrand - 2500 records, 1700 contributors, 800 multiples
Warren - 11100 records, 3100 contributors, 8000 multiples
Buttigieg - 5400 records, 4050 contributors, 1350 multiples
Sanders - 28000 records, 9200 contributors, 18800 multiples

Again, this doesn't include the "unitemized" contributions for which the FEC shows only the aggregate.

[ecstatic]

102. Thank you for the info and explanation! I think I will take a look after all.

Really curious to see if my name is included. I've never donated more than $300 in 1 transaction.

[still_one]

83. Absoltuely. Also, when you go into a street fight, you don't tie one arm behind your back.

especially with the stakes so high for the general election, and as far as I am concerned, I have no problem with any campaign running for the Democratic nomination doing it

[brooklynite]

24. I know a deep-pockets funder who has hosted VP Biden in her home...

Don't think they'll be contributing this time.

[cwydro]

30. Cool story.

[Demsrule86]

36. Well others will step-up. And as he continues to be the front runner he will

Be funded in various ways...a mix of small donors and big donors. I have no issue with this. I must say attacking Biden with this sort of thing which is unrefutable because of of its secrecy is unfair and not like your usual informative posts.

[still_one]

84. no offense, what does that mean? Are you implying she is supporting another candidate? If so, I

have no problem with any candidate utilizing such funding, as long as it is done legally of course

[KPN]

34. Oh boy. Here we go.

Side note: not a big fan of Ed Rendell. That's two smudges for Joe despite the fact I like him personally. Probably not going to be among my front-runners but I'll give him some time before saying so.

[redstatebluegirl]

52. I am not stupid, I have been around for a while in politics over 40 years.

It takes a lot of money to run for President. Until this country finds another way to fund elections you have to do this once in a while. Is it perfect absolutely not, is it necessary, I'm afraid that it is in today's world of multimillion dollar media buys, huge campaign staffs and thousands of boots on the ground that are not volunteers.

No I don't like it, but at least he is honest about what he is doing. You cannot fund a national election totally on 26 dollar donations.

[UniteFightBack]

64. Folks need to

grow the hell up and get the hell real.

[Blue_true]

90. I doubt that people

Who are convinced that a person that has been in Congress for close to 29 years and has one key bill as credit, will magically, somehow bring about free college, Medicare for all and high tax rates on the rich, will be growing up politically anytime soon. That is why we need to look at the part of the 43% of registered voters who truly didn't vote in 2016 (as opposed to writing in or voting Stein) and get those people off their asses and to the polls. Trump's disapproval rating being consistently 53-57% says that a lot of those people have real concerns about him.

[Jose Garcia]

56. It's scheduled for Wednesday anytime between 8:00 AM 2:00 PM

[Honeycombe8]

57. Comcast HDQTRS is in Pennsylvania. PA is going to be a big state for Biden. nt

[jalan48]

72. Hey, at least we know who's running the country.

[CentralMass]

76. :-)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

78. You know what? I don't care any more. All that David vs. Goliath stuff is great for talking points,

but I don't want to see any of our candidates go into this election without enough money to keep up with and beat Trump and the GOP. This is the way it works. I don't like it but until we have a better way to fund elections, I'm all for taking whatever contributions are offered as long as they are legal and accounted for.

[still_one]

85. I agree. As far as I am concerned any candidate who needs to do it should do it. Until we have

publicly funded elections, it takes money to win elections, that is the harsh reality

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

98. I don't care if any candidate, including Bernie, gets money from Goldman Fucking Sachs.

Or technically, from its fat cat capitalist employees. The evil corporations mostly support the GOP, but if they want to hedge their bets and throw a few bucks at a Democrat, take their dirty fucking money and use it to buy ads and pay campaign staff and beat Trump.

[still_one]

99. same here. Maybe that will change one day. but the stakes are too damn high for 2020, and

as long as the contributions are legal, I have no problem with any campaign doing it

[CentralMass]

79. There goes the neighborhood.

[Fiendish Thingy]

87. Well, that's sure going to fire up the youth vote

[emmaverybo]

94. We can't speak for youth

As a whole. It is patronizing and reductive for people to think they know the youth vote, the black vote etc. There is diversity within demographic groups and much more complicated assessments made about a candidate than can be presumed based on prevailing, stereotypical notions about youth, for one, or really any other voters we tend to group as a voting bloc.

[Fiendish Thingy]

95. And it is even more patronizing to assume Youth will automatically vote for Biden

Should he become the nominee.

[emmaverybo]

96. Who is assuming that?

Neither more nor less patronizing to suggest who “youth” will or will not vote for. So far, a poll suggests college students favor Biden, Sanders, and Trump. We will remain in great flux. No one is a lock.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

97. The youth vote has been historically unreliable.