In a direct jab at republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, prominent republican billionaire backer Charles Koch said during an interview on today's edition of ABC's "This Week" that Democrat Hillary Clinton might make a better president than the candidates in the Republican field.
Koch, who together with his brother David, has been a prominent source of funding for establishment republicans, said that in some respects Bill Clinton had been a better president than George W. Bush, who Koch said had increased government spending. When asked if Hillary Clinton would be a better president than the Republicans currently running, he said, "It's possible, it's possible."
According to ABC, Koch who leads the influential political organization Freedom Partners, has been displeased so far with the tone of the Republican presidential race.
He is not the only one. Earlier today, The Hill reported that Republican mega-donors, "increasingly fed up with their party’s circus-like presidential primary, are sitting on their checkbooks until the nominee is decided." With Trump and Cruz the two likeliest nominees, a number of donors say they would rather sit it out and wait to see how the next two months play out before they open their checkbooks again. "I have been called and asked for money and I said, ‘Once we pick a nominee, then I will give money again,’ ” said Minnesota billionaire Stanley Hubbard, who gave an early $50,000 donation to Scott Walker’s super-PAC but has made no significant investment since.
"The problem is that nobody prefers either of those two candidates [Trump or Cruz] and the third candidate [Kasich], no-one thinks he has a chance, so why waste your money?” Hubbard told The Hill.
Some, however, just Koch, are indirectly trying to sway the nomination process in a way that may have just swing the republican nomination upside down.
To be sure, Koch has not fully flipped: asked if he could support Clinton over the Republicans, Koch responded, "We would have to believe her actions would be quite different than her rhetoric. Let me put it that way."
While many conservatives have questioned Trump's commitment to their agenda, a spokesman for the Koch brothers said last month that they would not use any of their money to block him from winning the Republican nomination.
That said, Koch's tacit hint that he may end up supporting a democrat in the election over Trump could once again end up to Donald's advantage: recall that Trump's core campaign promise is that he is immune to the money from powerful outside sponsors and third party donors, especially the Koch's. With today's statement by Charles Koch, Trump's position becomes that much more powerful for those supporters who want a candidate who will "break from the mold" of merely perpetuating existing corporate interest groups and powerful lobbies.
Then again, it may all be decided as soon as Tuesday's multi-state primary, because as we will show the presidential race could be decided as soon the Pennyslvania primary. At that point Koch would have no choice but to make his support for the republican candidate public, or else prove to the world that when it comes to corporate interest, the "Republican-Democrat" division is just for populat consumption, and the only candidate that is unacceptable is someone who refuses to be told what to do or say in exchange for such trinkets as speeches at $250,000 per hours.
Full clip below.
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