Courtesy of Pam Martens
Mark Block, Chief of Staff to Herman Cain During His Presidential Bid, Smokes a Cigarette in Advertisement for Cain’s Campaign
Herman Cain Screen Shot from Smoking Ad Used During His Presidential Bid
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
President Donald Trump announced yesterday from the Oval Office that he is recommending Herman Cain for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, calling him “a terrific person” and saying “I’ve told my folks that’s the man.” Cain was a presidential contender in the Republican Party in 2011 until sexual harassment charges derailed his bid.
Trump’s announcement came just weeks after Trump proposed Stephen Moore for an additional open seat on the Fed. Both Cain and Moore have had close ties to Americans for Prosperity, a corporate front group tied to the Tea Party movement and created with money from the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David. The Koch brothers are majority owners of the fossil fuels conglomerate, Koch Industries.
Scott Keyes, writing for Think Progress in 2011, reported that “Cain held an official position in the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity,” which dated back to 2005. Keyes reports that Cain led the organization’s “Prosperity Expansion Project,” which “allowed Cain to barnstorm the country, giving speeches, holding town halls, and sharpening his skills for an eventual presidential bid.”
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Today, the Kochs have another front group called Freedom Partners, which has been responsible for embedding a large number of Koch loyalists in the Trump administration. As of July 2018, eight of the nine members of Freedom Partners’ Board of Directors is a current or former Koch company employee, including the Chair of Freedom Partners, Mark Holden, who simultaneously serves as the General Counsel of Koch Industries.
SourceWatch reported in April of last year that a dozen people who previously worked at Freedom Partners are now working in the Trump administration. Among that group was Marc Short, former Freedom Partners’ President, who became Director of Legislative Affairs for Trump. Short stepped down last year after achieving many of Freedom Partners’ stated demands.
Freedom Partners was responsible for providing the Trump administration with a list of regulations it wanted gutted – like the Paris Climate accord (which Trump revoked on June 1, 2017) and numerous EPA rules – and threatened those lawmakers who didn’t get on board, writing that “Freedom Partners will hold lawmakers who oppose regulatory relief accountable for their positions.”
Also noteworthy, 12 lawyers from the Jones Day corporate law firm headed to important posts in the Trump administration on January 20, 2017 – Trump’s inauguration day. Jones Day had represented Freedom Partners as well as representing Koch Industries’ in its mergers and acquisitions.
Today, the Kochs are more dangerous than ever. They’ve created their own voter database called i360 to micro target voters and, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, “have developed detailed personality profiles on 89 percent of the U.S. population.” (See related articles below.)
Americans have heard plenty from law enforcement about Russia’s interference in U.S. elections but nothing from law enforcement about the Koch’s long-term meddling in elections. It’s long past the time for that to change.
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