Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has made it part of her presidential platform to ban lobbyists from donating to campaigns, despite endorsing a South Carolina Senate candidate who has received more than $15,000 from lobbyists this year.
Warren went into detail about her anti-corruption plan during a speech Monday at Washington Square Park in New York City.
"Lobbyists and a public official should be a matter of public record. No more lobbying on behalf of foreign governments," Warren said. "And no more campaign contributions or bundling by lobbyists. Contributing to a campaign at the same time that you are paid to influence those same elected officials is the very definition of bribery, and we're going to put a stop to it."
But in May, Warren endorsed Jaime Harrison, a former corporate lobbyist who is running for Senate to replace Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.). Warren said Harrison "will fight hard for the people of South Carolina and take our country forward."
Jaime Harrison will fight hard for the people of South Carolina and take our country forward. Go Jaime! https://t.co/pY5keteN1i
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 30, 2019
Harrison, who is worth over $3 million due to his lobbying career, took more than $15,000 from at least two dozen lobbyists during the second quarter of 2019, the Washington Free Beacon reported:
Among the lobbyists that contributed to Harrison last quarter is Chicago-based consultant William Singer, who donated $250 to Harrison's campaign. Back in 2017, he paid a $25,000 fine after he illegally lobbied then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel through his personal email account without registering with the city as a lobbyist. He paid the fine and registered as a lobbyist about eight months after the email was sent.
Darrel Thompson and Christina Antelo, lobbyists who donated $250 and $1,000 respectively to Harrison's campaign, have lobbied on behalf of Mylan, the pharmaceutical company that faced backlash after it was caught inflating the price of EpiPens by nearly 500 percent. Antelo lobbied on Mylan's behalf in 2017 as a Podesta Group employee as the company finalized a $465 million settlement with the federal government in August 2017 for misclassifying the EpiPen.
While Warren has taken a stand against federal lobbyists during her presidential campaign, she has taken thousands of dollars from at least four federal lobbyists dating back to 2012. Warren isn't the only Democratic presidential candidate who is supporting Harrison after campaigning against lobbyists. Former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), and South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg have all tweeted their support for Harrison's campaign.