Rachel Maddow Show Analyzes Bernie's Claim That HILLARY Is In The Pocket Of Big Oil... It's FALSE! [View all]

[MrWendel]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/2/1509392/-Rachel-Maddow-Show-Analyzes-Bernie-s-Claim-That-HILLARY-Is-In-The-Pocket-Of-Big-Oil-It-s-FALSE

By educatordcm



Interesting analysis from the Rachel Maddow Show in an article titled “Money From Big Oil Isn’t Always What It Appears To Be”. The information presented ran VERY CONTRARY to the information Bernie, his campaign, his surrogates, and his supporters are perpetuating. I find this source very credible, as Steve Benen is an Emmy Nominated political writer for The Rachel Maddow Show and an extremely respected political journalist. Some of the highlights:

www.msnbc.com/...

For its part, the Sanders campaign highlighted the encounter and insisted that Clinton “has relied heavily on funds from lobbyists working for the oil, gas and coal industry.” This morning, the senator himself repeated the charge, arguing, “The fact of the matter is Secretary Clinton has taken significant money from the fossil fuel industry.”

The point of the criticisms is hardly subtle: Sanders and his supporters want Democrats to see Clinton as someone who may not follow through on her energy and environmental commitments because of the money she’s received from Big Oil.
So, is that fair? Let’s unwrap this a bit.

The Washington Post published a report today, relying on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, which drew an important distinction that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle: technically, both Clinton and Sanders have received money from “the oil and gas industry.”

The total for Clinton’s campaign is about $308,000; for Sanders’s, it’s about $54,000. As Clinton noted in the moment, the Center for Responsive Politics mostly aggregates contributions by employer.

If a guy who runs the commissary at Chevron in California gives $27 to Bernie Sanders, that’s counted as “oil and gas industry” money.

(More in link)