How Emily’s List and Center for American Progress Sold Out to Michael Bloomberg

Billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat Presidential Candidate Michael Bloomberg was hit with two damaging front-page headlines Saturday. The Washington Post reported , “Bloomberg for years has battled women’s allegations of profane, sexist comments.”
“Now, as Bloomberg is increasingly viewed as a viable Democratic candidate for president and the #MeToo era has raised the profile of workplace harassment, he is finding that his efforts to prevent disclosure are clashing against demands that he release former employees and complainants from their nondisclosure agreements.”
“The allegations that he tolerated a hostile office culture could undercut his ability to criticize President Trump’s alleged sexual misconduct and efforts to keep such claims private.”
And in a headline titled “Bloomberg’s Billions: How the Presidential Candidate Built His Influence” the New York Times exposes the corruption of two faux-progressive DNC-affiliated organizations, Emily’s List and the Center for American Progress who sold out their organization’s missions in return for millions of Bloomberg’s influence buying:

“In the fall of 2018, Emily’s List had a dilemma. With congressional elections approaching and the Supreme Court confirmation battle over Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh underway, the Democratic women’s group was hosting a major fund-raising luncheon in New York. Among the scheduled headline speakers was Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor, who had donated nearly $6 million to Emily’s List over the years.”
“Days before the event, Mr. Bloomberg made blunt comments in an interview with The New York Times , expressing skepticism about the #MeToo movement and questioning sexual misconduct allegations against Charlie Rose, the disgraced news anchor. Senior Emily’s List officials seriously debated withdrawing Mr. Bloomberg’s invitation, according to three people familiar with the deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
“In the end, the group concluded it could not risk alienating Mr. Bloomberg.”
And the Times on the Center for American Progress:
“In interviews with The Times, no one described being threatened or coerced by Mr. Bloomberg or his money. But many said his wealth was an inescapable consideration — a gravitational force powerful enough to make coercion unnecessary.”
““They aren’t going to criticize him in his 2020 run because they don’t want to jeopardize receiving financial support from him in the future,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the good-government group Common Cause.”
“That chilling effect was apparent in 2015 to researchers at the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy group, when they turned in a report on anti-Muslim bias in the United States. Their draft included a chapter of more than 4,000 words about New York City police surveillance of Muslim communities; Mr. Bloomberg was mentioned by name eight times in the chapter, which was reviewed by The Times.”
“When the report was published a few weeks later, the chapter was gone. So was any mention of Mr. Bloomberg’s name.”
“Yasmine Taeb, an author of the report, said in an interview that the authors had been instructed to make drastic revisions or remove the chapter, and opted to do the latter rather than “whitewash the N.Y.P.D.’s wrongdoings.” She said she found it “disconcerting” to be asked to remove the chapter “because of how it was going to be perceived by Mayor Bloomberg.””
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>For more on CAP's grotesque corruption – remember they only stopped accepting millions from the despots of the UAE last year under pressure – see here:<a href=”https://t.co/4yGJUznhlI”>https://t.co/4yGJUznhlI</a></p>— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) <a href=”https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/ ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>We now know that the PAC Emily’s List, which confirmed it was affiliated with an attack ad against Sanders (despite his 100% pro choice record), has taken $6M from Bloomberg. We deserve better feminism. Meet Matriarch, helping progressive working-class women run for office: <a href=”https://t.co/YSxVSOHSrU”>https://t.co/YSxVSOHSrU</a></p>— francesca fiorentini (@franifio) <a href=”https://twitter.com/franifio/status/ ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”und” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://t.co/Wx7mIY0jws”>https://t.co/Wx7mIY0jws</a> <a href=”https://t.co/BYrRsBmq1m”>https://t.co/BYrRsBmq1m</a></p>— aaron j (@afoolsaaron) <a href=”https://twitter.com/afoolsaaron/status/ ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Consider that the most prominent liberal think tank scrubbed its report that made Bloomberg look bad *at the expense of honestly analyzing Islamophobia.*<br><br>The report whitewashed massive wrongs in the biggest city in the US at the expense of the people who were wronged. <a href=”https://t.co/6QSytfMq6j”>https://t.co/6QSytfMq6j</a></p>— Alex Kotch (@alexkotch) <a href=”https://twitter.com/alexkotch/status/ ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

2020-02-16 | center for american progress, democratic primary, emilys list | English | TruthDig