The Wall Street billionaire who was acclaimed for giving Oxford University his biggest donation “since the Renaissance” made campaign contributions during the electoral cycle to seven of the Republican lawmakers who later voted to override the results of the 2020 elections and supported candidates last year, even when they disputed Joe Biden’s victory.
Stephen Schwarzman, founder and chief executive of the Blackstone Group, also financially supported a campaign group – Georgians by Kelly Loeffler – who subsequently ran a Facebook ad that darkened the skin of Loeffler’s Democratic opponent, Raphael Warnock.
Although Schwarzman was praised for his philanthropy, donating hundreds of millions of dollars to Oxford, Yale University, MIT and the New York Public Library, financial support billionaires like Schwarzman, Richard Uihlein and Jeffrey Yass gave Trump and other Republicans a The right is facing further scrutiny in light of the violent insurrection of Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
In the months leading up to Joe Biden’s election in November, Trump did not commit to a peaceful transfer of power or a promise to respect election results. The former president was accused – for the second time – in the House of Representatives for inciting the violence that engulfed the Capitol on January 6.
Hours after the riot, in which five people died, including a policeman, 147 Republicans voted to invalidate the 2020 election.
Public records show that Schwarzman donated about $ 33.5 million to support groups for Republicans in the 2020 election cycle, including $ 3 million for 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 that was seen as a direct affront to the votes of blacks and other American minorities whose support was fundamental to Joe Biden’s victory.
According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, Schwarzman was the third largest individual donor to Republican “opponents” and the eight largest mega-donor in the 2020 electoral cycle. The late Sheldon Adelson led the list of mega-donors, followed by two liberal donors: Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer.
Asked about Schwarzman’s background, Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump campaign group that harshly criticized major Republican donors, said: “There are few people who have funded the candidates more directly than involved in the poisoning of American democracy. “
Schwarzman himself is no stranger to the controversy. In 2010, the CEO apologized for making an “inadequate analogy” when comparing Barack Obama’s plan to tax private companies to the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.
In response to the Guardian’s questions, a Schwarzman spokesman emphasized that the CEO’s last donation to the Trump presidential campaign was in January 2020, long before the former president was accused of inciting an insurrection, and that the two there was no mention of “more than six months ago”.
Schwarzman’s spokesman also emphasized that his assistance was “purely on issues related to economic and trade policy, not politics”.
But Trump was involved in controversial and racist rhetoric long before January 2020. Documented incidents include the ex-president’s adoption of birtherism, his initial defense of far-right protesters in Charlottesville, his Muslim ban on immigrants, his claim that migrants from African nations and Haiti come from “shitty countries”, his declaration that four progressive colored Democratic congressmen “come back and help repair the totally destroyed and crime-infested places they came from”, and their close association with advisers that embrace white supremacy.
A spokesman for Schwarzman said: “Of course, Steve considers these statements questionable and disagrees with them. As was publicly reported, Steve did not hesitate to assess areas in which he disagreed with President Trump. “The spokesman said Schwarzman supported Trump during the Democratic primaries because he believed his” policy and economic agenda was the best way forward. “
While some billionaires – like Richard Uihlein, of the packaging company Uline – have a history of donations to the right-wing Republican groups, Schwarzman’s history is mixed. Public records show that he donated more to Republicans who – eventually – recognized and certified Biden’s victory, including Joni Ernst and Rob Portman. He also made campaign donations to Liz Cheney, one of 10 Republican members of Congress who voted in the House of Representatives for impeaching the president.
A spokesman for Schwarzman pointed out that the CEO’s donations to other Republicans far outweighed donations to Trump.
But Schwarzman has also donated in the past to some of Trump’s most loyal allies on Capitol Hill, including: Devin Nunes and Andy Harris, who was recently stopped by police for bringing a firearm hidden on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Seven of the Republicans whose campaigns Schwarzman supported financially in 2020 ended up voting to overturn the election results. These donations were made at the beginning of the 2020 cycle.
In September 2020, Schwarzman also donated $ 5,600 to Georgians to Kelly Loeffler, the former Republican senator’s political action committee. Months later, in December, while Loeffler faced a special election against his Democratic opponent, Raphael Warnock, the group published an ad on Facebook claiming that Warnock’s skin was darkened. The problem was reported at the time by Salon. Loeffler’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
There is no evidence that Schwarzman played a role in the advertisement or was aware of it, or approved or endorsed it.
Schwarzman’s unwavering loyalty to Trump was described in a recent New York Times article, which pointed to the access that the Wall Street financier had to world leaders in his former role as an aide to the president, including a Saudi Arabian investment pledge. The article also noted that Schwarzman weighed in on the political areas where he disagreed with Trump and, according to colleagues at Blackstone, sought to dissuade him from his most extreme positions. He reportedly asked for continuation of Dhaka, the immigration program that Trump intended to end, and argued, but failed to convince Trump to stay in the Paris climate deal.
A report in the Financial Times days after the election in the United States in November claimed that Schwarzman was defending Trump in particular, even as others were alarmed by the former president’s claims that the election had been stolen.
At the time, Blackstone told FT that “[Schwarzman] believes that the electoral system is solid and that the democratic process will develop in an orderly and legal manner, as it has happened throughout the history of our country ”.
After the November election, it became clear that control of the U.S. Senate would be determined by two runoff elections in Georgia, where Loeffler and Republican colleague David Perdue faced two Democratic opponents.
On November 9, while Georgia denounced in favor of Biden days after the November election, the two Republican senators in Georgia called for the resignation of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, making baseless claims that the official, Brad Raffensperger, had not talked about being “honest and transparent elections”.
Billionaires, including Rupert Murdoch, began pouring donations into the Republican-controlled Senate Leadership Fund to try to support the Loeffler and Perdue campaigns. Among the largest were Schwarzman’s $ 15 million donation, which was recorded in public documents as having been made on November 12, three days after Loeffler and Perdue’s unsubstantiated challenge to Raffensperger. Loeffler would later appear on stage with rising right-wing star Marjorie Taylor Greene, a newly elected congresswoman from Georgia who believes in the QAnon conspiracy theories.
Then, on November 23, three weeks after the election, Schwarzman released a statement acknowledging that Biden had won. He said: “In my comments, three days after the election, I was trying to be a voice of reason and express why it is in the national interest that all Americans believe that the election is being resolved correctly. But the outcome is very certain today, and the country must move forward ”.
He promised to help the new Democratic president “rebuild our post-Covid economy”.
On January 6, Schwarzman issued a new public statement in response to the Capitol riot, saying he was “shocked and horrified by the crowd’s attempt to undermine our constitution … the election result is very clear and there must be a peaceful transition of power”.
A spokesman for Schwarzman said: “Steve made it clear in a public statement in November, long before the January college election certification, that President Joe Biden won the election and that he was ready to help the new president in every way that could. This was followed by a deeply personal statement expressing their horror and disgust at the terrible uprising that followed President Trump’s statements on January 6 ”.
The spokesman added: “Steve was always a Republican and his last campaign donation was in January 2020, before President Biden won a single primary. As Steve’s previous statement makes clear, he strongly condemns terrible attempts to undermine our constitution. ”
The Guardian asked Oxford, Yale and MIT to comment on Schwarzman’s track record of supporting Trump and his political donations. Only one institution – Yale, where Schwarzman attended university and donated $ 150 million – defended Schwarzman’s political activity.
“Mr. Schwarzman did not support Trump in his rejection of the election results. On November 23, Mr. Schwarzman stated that the outcome of the elections was clear and that he was ready to help President Biden and his team to rebuild our economy. On January 6, like other heads of corporations, he condemned the violence on Capitol Hill, ”said Yale’s spokesman.
An Oxford spokesman declined to comment specifically on Schwarzman’s record of political donations.
The Oxford spokesman said: “Mr. Schwarzman has been approved for our rigorous due diligence procedures, which consider ethical, legal, financial and reputation issues. All grant decisions are made by the University’s Committee for Donation Review and Research Funding, whose members include Oxford scholars with experience in relevant areas such as ethics, law and business. “
Schwarzman’s £ 150 million gift to Oxford, unveiled 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 executive.
An MIT spokesman, who received $ 250 million from Schwarzman, did not comment on questions about Schwarzman’s values or his political donations, but said: “What unites our community is mutual respect and a commitment to science, innovation technology and the search for knowledge. “