JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Google, others halt political spending after Capitol riot

Following the mob attack on the U.S Capitol, Washington D.C which left at least five people dead in its wake, leading global corporations have announced their intentions to pause all political donations. Some multinational corporations and banks have decided to cease donations to all lawmakers rather than alienating members of the Republican Party who backed the efforts to disrupt the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden.

JPMorgan Chase, a multinational investment bank and the largest in the United States stated that the company will be pausing Political Action Committees (PAC) donations for Republicans and Democrats for the next six months till considerable changes are made to its political-donation strategies.

In a statement, Peter Scher, JPMorgan’s head of corporate responsibility said: “The country is facing unprecedented health, economic and political crises. The focus of business leaders, political leaders, and civic leaders right now should be on governing and getting help to those who desperately need it most. There will be plenty of time for campaigning later.”

Beverage Corporation, Coca-Cola stated: “We were all stunned by the unlawful and violent events that unfolded in our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, and we are grateful that Democracy prevailed with the subsequent certification of the election results. The current events will long be remembered and will factor into our future contribution decisions.”
Tech and Media companies like Google, Amazon, AT&T, Stripe, Facebook, and Microsoft also announced that they would halt all contributions from their PAC as a result of the riot.

Google announced through the company’s spokesperson: “We have frozen all NetPAC political contributions while we review and reassess its policies following last week’s deeply troubling events.”

Facebook said: “Following last week’s awful violence in D.C., we are pausing all of our PAC contributions for at least the current quarter, while we review our policies.” The social media giant had opted out of donating to both candidates in the past few election cycles.

According to CNBC, “Of the six biggest U.S. banks, only Morgan Stanley made it clear that it will not make donations to members of Congress who opposed the Electoral College certification of Biden. The firm will continue contributions to other lawmakers, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.”

 

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