(HorizonPost.com) – President Joe Biden has touted a lot of promises on his way to the presidency. He promised the progressive base of the Democratic Party that he will end the cash influence corrupting politics and putting more money in donors’ pockets. But that pledge was broken, which is unsurprising to many conservatives who have pointed at his family profiting off of selling influence overseas, especially to China.
A new report by the government watchdog Campaign Legal Center (CLC) reveals that Biden has given ambassadorships to those who are big donors of the Democratic Party, according to Newsweek. The United States’ chief foreign policy representatives are reportedly donors, making up 39 percent of his appointments. The president’s actions are a far cry from where he was on the campaign trail in 2019 when he vowed that merit would supersede influence when it comes to choosing who will represent the country overseas. Each ambassador has reportedly contributed at least $400,000 per person.
But even then, Biden caveated that pledge by saying that even those who have contributed may be “fully qualified” to be an ambassador. Regardless, contributions run the game of politics and it is a bipartisan practice to reward those who have rewarded you. While Barack Obama gave 31 major donors an ambassadorship, 44 percent of Donald Trump’s appointments were contributors.
Federal law states that appointments to foreign points should ideally be given to those in the U.S. Foreign Service, i.e., experts in their field. But many of those appointed under Biden do not speak the language of the country they are in. Roger Wieand, a senior researcher at Campaign Legal Center, claims that this is subverting the U.S.’s credibility because other countries see these appointments as political.
One such ambassador is David Cohen, a Comcast executive, who donated over $1 million to Democrats before he was appointed to Canada.
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