Biden taps revolving-door corporate lobbyist from Podesta Group to run Democratic Party
The next head of the Democratic National Committee, hand-picked by President-elect Joe Biden, is a revolving-door former lobbyist for technology giants, the military-industrial complex, tobacco companies, major banks, Walmart, and more. What’s more, he’s proud of his lobbying work and has fought back against forces in the Democratic Party who would crack down on the revolving door.
Jaime Harrison, whose 2020 Senate run was notable for its breathtaking and record-setting cash haul, was until 2016 a lobbyist at the disgraced and since-disbanded Podesta Group. Now, Harrison will be the chairman of the Democratic Party, responsible for raising cash to protect Democrats’ razor-thin margins in the House and Senate. Harrison’s job will be, in effect, aligning Biden’s governance with the interests of his old clients and recent donors, including Google, Walmart, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing.
Harrison defends his record as a revolving-door lobbyist and, in the past, has blasted as “elitist” those who would exclude corporate lobbyists from top party positions.
When Harrison ran for DNC chairman in 2016, he suggested that 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost because the party was too harsh toward steelworkers and lobbyists.
“Part of the rejection we saw in this election was this elitism within the Democratic Party about people who do certain jobs,” he told Vox.
The populist attack on lobbyists was misguided, Harrison argued in the shadow of President Trump’s 2016 victory.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/biden-taps-revolving-door-corporate-lobbyist-from-podesta-group-to-run-the-democratic-party