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DNC Chair Blames Citizens United for Why Dems Can't Compete With GOP on Fundraising

May 25, 2017

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez blamed Citizens United on Thursday for why Democrats couldn't compete with Republicans on the fundraising front in Montana's special House election.

MSNBC host Chuck Todd addressed the physical altercation that occurred on Wednesday between Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs and Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate for the Montana seat.

Gianforte was charged with a misdemeanor assault, which led Todd to ask Perez whether Democrats were in Montana in time to take advantage of the scandal. The polls close Thursday night.

"You look at the spending advantage, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has outspent the Democrats 3-to-1. The Republican PACs, including one led by Speaker Ryan, has outspent the Democratic PACs 16-to-1. Your own organization would not tell us how much money you've spent, but the RNC has spent almost a million dollars," Todd said.

Todd continued by asking Perez why the DNC didn't take the Montana race more seriously and then told him, "You didn't put your money where your mouth is."

"Chuck, you've run campaigns, so you understand in the world of post-Citizens United, we're never going to match the Republicans dollar for dollar," Perez said. "That's why we need to overturn Citizens United. All the dark money that goes there and elsewhere."

Todd was not satisfied with Perez's answer shifting blame to the 2010 Supreme Court decision.

"So you don't acknowledge that you should have jumped in sooner? That if you guys come up two or three points short, you're going to sit there and say, boy, imagine if you actually took this race as seriously as you took Georgia two months ago?" Todd said.

"First of all, the polls aren't closed yet," Perez said, deflecting away from Todd's question.

Perez was not the only Democrat on Thursday to complain about there being too much money in politics, as former President Barack Obama criticized it in Germany.

"There is no doubt that in America there is too much money in politics," Obama said.