During a town hall on Monday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), and Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) were asked if they would refuse money from lobbyist groups.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It's encouraging for me as a younger person to see some of the older people here.
00:07This question I think relates to most of the other questions that we've seen.
00:15Can everybody hear me?
00:18I'm trying to be brief.
00:26You're running long.
00:32For the next group, thanks for everyone showing up.
00:37This has to do with a lot of the other questions that have been raised today.
00:41You spoke about using all the tools in our toolbox.
00:45You spoke about Sin Israel.
00:48You spoke about the...
00:50I think we're all aware of the influence of billionaires in our politics and large corporations.
00:57And something I think would go really far in making you all national superstars.
01:05Will you personally pledge to not take money from corporations and industry lobbying groups and be the popular hero that we and the Democrats in our country needs?
01:15Right.
01:19Thank you, Mr. President.
01:22Thank you, Mr. President.
01:23Well, I just followed the campaign financial rules and accept.
01:28It is a very, I think, rigorous system that limits the amount of money any one person or any one entity can give to me.
01:40And I've chosen not to take funds from some groups that I think have questions about.
01:49And I do that on an individual basis.
01:52And the point, though, that Sheldon's Bank is, and I will try to make now, is our system of public financing is broken.
02:04The court's broken.
02:07We have to get back to the point where corporations cannot participate indirectly.
02:13And that we have to get back to those limits where campaigns are something that, you know, if you work hard, frankly, anybody can run if you go out and work hard.
02:26And now, and it goes back to a lot of what we said today, you know, why are my colleagues not standing up for the right thing?
02:33Well, when someone in the White House quotient say you're going to have a primary opponent and Elon's going to give them $100 million, they flinch.
02:42We have to fix that.
02:43I can't be flinched.
02:45I happen to not take corporate money.
02:52But what people take or don't take individual.
02:57Correct.
02:58Is that the pledge for no?
03:01Corporate money, I said.
03:02Corporate money.
03:03Corporate.
03:04Right, right, right.
03:05So easy to lobbyists as well.
03:06I think he answered.
03:07I think he answered.
03:09So what I'm trying to say is that the real danger in politics, in my view, is the enormous amounts of dark money that gets poured into our politics.
03:20You never see it because it gets laundered through a 501c4 or some shell corporation and ends up in a super PAC.
03:27The candidate knows.
03:29Everybody else doesn't know.
03:31And the ability for influence, without even having to spend the money, once candidates know that you can get away with putting $20, $50 million into a race against them anonymously,
03:49that has a very chilling effect.
03:54So that's why I've fought against dark money.
03:57It's my Disclose Act that we're trying to pass.
03:59It would be constitutional if it passed, and it would limit to $10,000 that anybody could give in any race.
04:05That, to me, is the real danger of institutional corruption.
04:09And that's why I fight.
04:10And the only thing I would add there is this.
04:19There's a great influence of money in politics.
04:23I think that is clear.
04:25And look, I would say I'm an unusual story of someone who has come to politics.
04:32My dad is at a cash register in a liquor store right now.
04:35My mom is a nursing home nurse.
04:38You know, I...
04:40Yeah, let's hear it for nursing home nurses, please.
04:44So I can tell her I gave her a shout-out tonight.
04:47And so for me, my unlikely path here is one that I know is largely unlikely because of our origins.
04:58And we have to...
04:59If I, you know, could envision a path tomorrow to have the wholesale reforms that we need, I would...
05:10You know, I'm 100% there.
05:13The fact of the matter is there is that, you know, there is so much inequity baked into this system that we need to go after.
05:21And that is the conversation that we should be having.
05:24And that's why it's so important that we take back the reins of government both in 2026 and 2028 to arrive at that day.
05:33And I do think it's something that you can find a clear consensus on in this country.