In what is being billed as an open pressure campaign on corporate America, a former federal prosecutor established an organization that demands all businesses state that President Joe Biden fairly beat former President Donald Trump in November 2020.
Glenn Kirschner, a former prosecutor in the Army and U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia’s office–turned–MSNBC pundit, launched the campaign earlier in March.
“The Democracy Pledge is a simple commitment that corporations, companies and businesses can make to support democracy by affirming the legitimacy of the 2020 Presidential election,” reads the Democracy Pledge’s website. “It’s a promise not to aid those who seek to tear down democracy for political gain.”
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Few companies have signed the pledge, with most being small mom and pop shops.
Companies involved also pledge not to “support, donate to or endorse politicians, political campaigns or political action committees that promoted false conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential elections (or otherwise acted in ways contrary to a representative democracy).”
“What we’re trying to do is force companies’ hands so they can’t be agnostic,” Kirschner told HuffPost.
Any state attorney general or the over 130 Republican lawmakers who signed on to the Texas attorney general’s lawsuit in January would be included in the donation boycott, Kirschner said. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both of whom refused to certify Biden’s Electoral College victory, are also targeted.
“You can’t support Donald Trump and argue that you are in favor of free and fair elections,” Kirschner said. “If you’re supporting him, you’re just not supporting democracy.”
A number of companies that haven’t signed the pledge already promised to cease donations to Republicans who wouldn’t certify Biden’s victory.
“After the disturbing events at the Capitol, NetPAC paused all contributions while undertaking a review. Following that review, the NetPAC board has decided that it will not be making any contributions this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certification of the election results,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to the Washington Examiner in January.
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As for Kirschner, the Democracy Pledge appears as just another one of his campaigns against the GOP and Trump. In September, he argued that the former president was criminally liable for lives lost to COVID-19 and urged state attorneys general to file charges.
