In an interview on the Daily Beast's "The New Abnormal," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) made the case for his crusade to eliminate so-called "dark money" from politics, stating the hundreds of millions of dollars coming from mysterious groups are to blame for spreading misinformation that derails much-needed legislation.
Speaking with host Molly Jong-Fast, the Democrat who has made the focus on dark money's influence on the Supreme Court his central issue, accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of being a willing conduit by spreading the cash around to members of his party.
“We’re now at a stage where there's often more dark money spent by groups in a race than there is by the actual campaign itself," he told the host. "So if you are a person who can control a $20 or $30 million spend into a Senate race, you are absolutely essential to that senator and around his caucus. Mitch McConnell becomes indispensable as the spigot."
Calling dark money a "corrupting scourge," Whitehouse explained that the 2010 Citizens United decision opened the floodgates to undue influence of lawmakers.
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Using climate change legislation as an example, Whitehouse charged the fossil fuel industry of flooding "the Republican Party with money and also flood it with threats and promises about how money would be secretly spent."
"It’s been dark money-funded groups that have put out fake climate denial news, that have propped up fake climate scientists, and that have rewarded climate denial politicians. And punished Republicans who tried to get sensible on this subject,” he continued before adding that McConnell is the "eager handmaiden" of dark money groups as he does their bidding.
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