Factcheck.org steps in to defend the Chamber

[ProSense]

Foreign Money? Really?

Democrats peddle an unproven claim.

Summary
Democrats, from President Barack Obama on down, are trying to turn an evidence-free allegation into a major campaign theme, claiming that foreign corporations are "stealing our democracy" with secret, illegal contributions funneled through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s a claim with little basis in fact.

• The Democratic National Committee released a TV ad over the weekend claiming: "It appears they’ve even taken secret foreign money to influence our elections."
  
  
• President Obama said last week that "one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign sources."
  
  
• The liberal group MoveOn.org is claiming, without any qualification, that "oreign corporations are funding some of the $75 million the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending to defeat Democrats."

The chamber says it does receive money from foreign sources, but that it amounts to only a small fraction of the chamber’s $200 million budget. The chamber says none of the foreign money is used in its ads, and no evidence has been produced to show otherwise. Federal Election Commission opinions state that organizations taking in foreign money may make political donations legally, so long as they have "a reasonable accounting method" to keep foreign money separate and have enough money from U.S. sources to cover the donations.

more

Well, if the Chamber says it, then it must be so. Fact check complete.

Factcheck.org's previous post on the subject:

FULL QUESTION

What’s the truth behind the assertion that the Chamber of Commerce is funding ads attacking Democratic candidates with money solicited from foreign interests — China, oil emirate, Russian banks, etc. Currently MoveOn.org is working this story.

FULL ANSWER

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue has declared that his group will spend $75 million in connection with the upcoming midterm election. But the chamber won’t say specifically where that money is coming from, which gives corporations a conduit for funding attack ads anonymously.

<...>

The Allegation

The charge that the Chamber of Commerce might be using foreign money to help fund political ads arose in an Oct. 5 report by the left-leaning ThinkProgress, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, headed by John Podesta, former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton. The allegation has been picked up by the liberal group MoveOn.org Political Action, which calls it "potentially a very serious crime." MoveOn is running a "petition drive" urging an investigation by the Justice Department.

<...>

The Response

The chamber does indeed say it has internal controls to prevent any foreign money being used in illegal ways. Tita Freeman, the chamber’s vice president for communications, told us that money the chamber takes in from foreign corporations "is not used for political ads." However, she declined to describe how the funds are segregated. "I won’t go into the specific accounting," she said. "We are careful to comply with the applicable law."

<...>

The curious thing is that they went from an unanswered question to declaring the allegations unproven based on the Chamber's denials and assurances.

Exclusive: Foreign-Funded ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads

NYT editorial: Clean and Open American Elections

GRAPHIC: How The Chamber Gets Its Foreign Money

Still, Factcheck.org says the Chamber's word is good so quit harping.

[mrcheerful]

1. Foreign money is entering political out comes we were told that............

squirrel ......... never mind the chamber says it has plenty of safe guards to keep foreign money out of political ads.

[emulatorloo]

8. they act like we don't have any common sense. All the money goes to one account, the bank

doesn't decide oh only the american dollars get spent on bullshit attack ads.

[mrcheerful]

10. It really doesn't matter if the foreign money is used directly into ads as the foreign money allows

the COC to play the old switcharoo game, instead of using their own money to buy or pay for COC stuff they can use foreign money to do that so they can spend more of non foreign money to run R ads, it is a win win for COC.

[Vincardog]

2. BP also said 'it has internal controls to prevent' any possible leak of oil, did you see how that

worked out?

[Arkana]

15. I'd laugh if that wasn't so depressing.

[Radical Activist]

3. Shameful.

Especially considering the rarity of Tom Donahue's flings with the truth.

[mediaman007]

4. Tom Donahue = Bush* toady

[Enrique]

5. White House obviously knew this was coming

I don't know if Politifact has commented yet, but when they do, they will almost certainly declare the ad to be false, just like FactCheck. Who cares?

Strictly speaking the accusation is not perfectly fair, but Obama and the dems should NOT care about fairness. When we're up against Rove, we should fight dirty.

And since we're up against Rove, we will pay zero price for fighting dirty. The sight of Karl Rove saying "shame on you" to Obama is more amusing than anything else.

[ProSense]

6. Completely disagree

"Strictly speaking the accusation is not perfectly fair, but Obama and the dems should NOT care about fairness."

Why is the accusation not perfectly fair? The information provided by Think Progress and the NYT editorial show that the accusation is perfectly fair.

[Qutzupalotl]

7. They try to downplay the amount like that makes a difference.

The amount is irrelevant. If one ruble, one yuan, one rupee made it into election funding, that's big time illegal.

Also, ThinkProgress reported that a larger amount ($3 million, IIRC) of foreign money was solicited and deposited in the same account used to fund the attack ads. They are busted on this and they know it. We probably won't resolve the question until after the election, if/when the FEC finishes the investigation that Franken is calling for. Until then, it's fun to watch them squirm.

[kratos12]

9. This is how you beat a THUG you hit them over the head using their own tactics

until they scream that it's an unfair fight.

Thats when you know it's working.

Now don't stop hammering them on this Obama, hit em harder, harder, harder, and when they are down start kickin.

[Dawson Leery]

11. "FactCheck" of the "Annenberg school".

[mzmolly]

12. What?

"Democrats peddle an unproven claim."

Followed by ...

"The chamber says it does receive money from foreign sources"

Sounds proven to me.

[librechik]

13. shocker factcheck. whore

not always reliable, to say the least.

[Arkana]

14. You disappoint me, Factcheck. Either they do or don't use foreign money.

And they admitted to it.

Therefore, foreign money is being used to influence our elections and that is 100% illegal.