Some interesting stuff is happening in the wake of the Republican/white supremacist terrorist attack on the Capitol. One of the interesting moves is that businesses no longer want to be seen getting into bed with the party of MAGA, the party of white supremacy, the party of terrorist coups. Businesses which have, historically, donated money to the Republican Party or specific Republican candidates and congressmen are now suspending those donations. And in the case of Josh Hawley, one of his donors is asking for their donation back.
Hallmark Cards said Monday that it wants U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Roger Marshall of Kansas to return employee campaign donations, after the senators challenged Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. The Kansas City-based greeting card company said its employees donated $7,000 to Hawley and $5,000 to Marshall during the last two years through the Hallmark Card political action committee, The Kansas City Star reported.
“Hallmark believes the peaceful transition of power is part of the bedrock of our democratic system, and we abhor violence of any kind,” Hallmark spokeswoman JiaoJiao Shen said in a statement. “The recent actions of Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall do not reflect our company’s values. As a result, HALLPAC requested Sens. Hawley and Marshall to return all HALLPAC campaign contributions.”
Neither Hawley’s or Marshall’s office immediately returned messages seeking a response to Hallmark’s request.
Hallmark’s political action committee generally spends between $50,000 and $60,000 annually on campaign activities, with donations divided nearly evenly between Republican and Democratic candidates, Shen said.
Commerce Bank, another Kansas City-based company, announced on Monday that it also would suspend donations to any members of Congress who opposed recognizing Biden’s victory. Several other large companies, including American Express and JPMorgan Chase have either suspended donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying Biden’s win, or have suspended political donations altogether.
It is absolutely WILD to me that in the year 2021, we have private companies like Twitter, Facebook and HALLMARK showing more responsibility towards democracy than elected officials in the House and Senate. It’s wild to me that corporations like Hallmark are issuing statements like “we believe in the peaceful transition of power.” Anyway, out of all of the post-coup repercussions, hitting these MAGA ratf–kers in the pocketbook is the thing which will hurt them the most.
Hawley also appeared on white supremacist Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show last night, where Carlson asked him questions solely about… his book deal getting cancelled. Hawley was not questioned at all about how he incited terrorism and sided with a fascist coup.
Josh Hawley is interviewed on Fox News… about his book not being published pic.twitter.com/qinn8iHZTr
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) January 12, 2021
Biggest loser this week was unquestionably Trump. But Josh Hawley was a runner-up. Many Senators now despise him, the public saw a craven opportunist giving the mob a clenched-fist salute, his top sponsor Jack Danforth denounced him & a publisher canceled his book. More to come. pic.twitter.com/LFWI1dnkp9
— Larry Sabato (@LarrySabato) January 9, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty.
So, before last week, they were all fine with where their money was going.
Good point
OF COURSE. They ALL were. It just too “public” for them; mounting an insurrection is just too visible a way to promote your core values.
No more Hallmark moments for me.
Exactly. Before Jan. 6, they had no problem with Evil Ichabod trashing the election results and spreading lies. SMDH at all these companies with their too-little-too-late bans and public denouncements.
Exactly. They were fine with the racism, the family separations, the awful environmental policies, the pandemic response, lying about the election results, etc.
Also…why does Hallmark need a PAC? Those employees can donate personally if they choose. There is zero reason for this, or any, company to be contributing to politicians. Too much money in politics as it is.
In my country, corporates can’t fund political parties and funding from individuals is limited. It’s so much healthier. Lobbyists and rich people already hold so much power, I don’t want any of my elected officials to be indebted to them.
@Coz the problem with US that it was built and running as a corporation and not as a proper country..and now all the problems show how bad is the system. Sometimes it amazes me that it survived as long as it did
There’s schadenfreude and then there’s schadenscrolling when you read kaiser’s posts. This post had me chuckling.
If anyone listens to Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway on the pivot podcast or her solo one (Sway), she had Parler’s CEO on which led to him being booted of AWS and the platform now going under. The CEO is an idiot just like Hawley. Then there was Yale prof Jeffrey Sonnenfeld getting CEOs together to make them pledge to withdraw support from these traitorous cohorts. It’s uh how do you say…so schaden gratifying.
schadenscrolling
OMG I love this word.
It is indeed wild af that companies are showing more outrage about the insurrection than Republican elected officials. I would not have guessed Hallmark would distance themselves from someone like Hawley. I clapped and laughed when I saw this last night. No more treason’s greetings, lol.
Kaiser your headline is perfect. Surreal.
Hallmark has been surprising me these last couple of years. They at long last stood up to the homophobic quest to expel a commercial featuring a gay wedding. They’ve apparently decided to start including more diverse films, ( I think that’s because of heat from Lifetime Christmas specials and now Netflix), but I wouldn’t have thought it possible so we shall see. Now this move to distance themselves from a treasonous PUBLIC SERVANT, because that’s what these people are, PUBLIC SERVANTS! Not Rock Stars and they are required to serve the American people and seemed to have forgotten the job description.
I love this! Hallmark, of all companies. That pencil-necked traitor is going to be getting a lot more blowback.
I think it is important to take our business away from the companies that support people like him. I’m also stunned that he has only been a senator for a few years and he’s on very powerful committees. Disgusting. Here’s one source I found that lists his contributors:
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/josh-hawley/contributors?cid=N00041620&cycle=2020
I hope it’s an accurate source – don’t know much about it.
The Center for Responsive Politics is a credible source of information. I’d definitely trust them. Thanks for finding and sharing!
Thank you for sharing this! Can I just say…Hallmark PAC? They have a Political Action Committee? I never even imagined which makes me clueless clearly.
Start hitting these Republicans where it hurts and that is their bank accounts. Perhaps this will convince some of them to remove Trump and therefore his post presidency perks when the trial goes to senate
Why does Hallmark have a PAC??? Can anyone explain that to me? For their employees to make donations? Is it some kind of tax write-off or shelter? Do most big companies do this?
Center for Responsive Politics has a graph of their donations and in every year but one since 1991, they have donated considerably more to Republicans, in many cases twice or four times more. So this “with donations divided nearly evenly between Republican and Democratic candidates, Shen said” is baffling.
Valentine’s day is coming up – boycott russell stover!!!!!!!! I’m sure a huge portion of their sales comes from bday so it’s never too early to start advertising where their values lie!
You’re so right about corporations like hallmark saying what they said before our senators say it. Completely wild crazy ridiculous
You know, if Trumps bullshit had been called out from the GET GO instead of normalizing it for four years, we might not be in as much of a mess as we are. I keep shouting “TOO LITTLE TOO LATE” at my television.
Marriott hotels promised to be done with him too. No more donations.
This boot-licking dweeb really thought he was doing a thing. Hope that picture haunts him forever.
It will – but he won’t admit it.
That picture will be taught in Political Science courses as an example of how a moment on time can kill a career. He won’t win dog catcher now. And good he probably treats animals like he treats democracy.
Apparently someone juxtaposed that picture of Hawley with one of the Nazi Josef Gobbels striking a similar pose. It was a pretty striking match.
Someone was helping from within Congress. Hawley is a graduate of two Ivy League universities and he clerked at the Supreme Court. Not exactly a good old boy.
Why is Hallmark giving money to politicians?
Corporations have PACs as an employee benefit and they can match contributions. There is a limit to what is contributed and the amount is publicly reported.
Hallmark donated money to Hawley? I had no idea they were awful. Hawley showed his colours from day one when he ran his senate race – (and sadly unseated a really decent Senator Clair McCaskill). No more Hallmark moments from me.
Anyone who donated to these traitors in the first place absolutely does not deserve their money back. If anything, they should be donating more of their money to charities that help people hurt by the pandemic, since most of these lawmakers opposed a proper stimulus package.
Doesn’t the US seize the funding of terrorists? Can that money be taken and used for other causes?
Washington University of St. Louis is also a major top ten donor—I so don’t get this at all.
I am delighted to see Josh Hawley in the process of getting what he deserves. More, please; thank you, karma.
This combines with the videos of the people crying as they are banned from flights is giving me life.
I live in Kansas City and have known a number of artists that have worked for Hallmark. Their reputation isn’t great. I’m not a bit surprised that they have employees contributing their hard ( really hard by most accounts ) earned income to bribe ( cause come in that’s what it is) to local politicians. It’s also not surprising that they’d then demand the money back when not getting the grease they expected. So many bad actors in this story.
The only upside is that Hawley’s fall from grace is so public, shaudenfruede is right!
I didn’t think MO could have a more corrupt politician than disgraceful ex-governor Greitens but Hawley stepped up.
Parson isn’t far behind.
You got that right Swack.
He is the worst Big Boy impersonator ever.
You hear me, ever.
Keep it coming! The more associating with this toxic ahole president hurts pockets the more they will turn against him or ruin their own names. This is how he gets impeached. This is how they get the rep votes. By financial pressure. Not constitutional duty.
It will never seize to amaze me how many companies were ok with family separations and ‘good people on both sides’, smearing gold star families, grabbing women by the pussy, calling for the death penalty for teenagers etc. I’m happy to have never financed Hallmark in any way, but I didn’t know that they donated to the repubs and how many, many other companies did too. There’s the usual suspects, but also so many companies you wouldn’t expect to get into politics.
I live on the Kansas side of Kansas City and this seems very on brand for Hallmark and their donations. Both Josh Hawley and to a lesser extent Roger Marshall (the newest Kansas senator, who lost the populated areas but won the state with rural votes) are losing contributors because of their antics.
Josh Hawley is dangerous. He is exactly the type of politician I worry is going to take the Trump playbook and be manipulative enough to get it to work. I am convinced that one of the main goals of the current Republican party is to eliminate our democracy and put an oligarchy in place.
@Dazed and Confused. Yes. I live in Kansas City, MO too. Hawley reminds me so much of the smarmy politician at the end of an old Stephen King book “The Dead Zone.” In the book, the politician uses a small child as a shield against someone with a gun. That to me is Josh Hawley and why he is so dangerous. All he wants is power and he does not even live in Missouri or have a house here. He and his family live in Virginia!
Virginia here. Nope…don’t want him.
What upset me was that some companies are suspending donations to Republicans AND Democrats. Because “both-sidei-sm” and they’re probably afraid of getting boycotted or physically attacked by the fascists.
Also, I don’t understand that it is employee money. Did Hallmark force their probably minimum wage earners to do this? Why couldn’t Hallmark itself make donations with their huge profits from an almost monopoly on greeting cards?