In the wake of the Capitol riot, many corporate PACs announced that they would “pause” donations to Republican lawmakers who voted to contest the results of the 2020 election, suggesting that these lawmakers were in league with the rioters even though they loudly condemned the riot. A leftist mob has demanded the blacklisting of all Republicans who contested the election, as if Democrats had not contested the election 4 years before or suggested that there should be “uprisings all over the country” in 2020.
Toyota appeared to be one of the last bastions of sanity on the issue. The left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) raised the alarm about Toyota because the company’s PAC had given $55,000 to 37 Republicans who objected to the certification of Electoral College results on January 6.
“We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification,” a Toyota spokesperson told Axios late last month.
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Even then, Toyota claimed it had excluded some — likely Republican — members of congress because they had “undermined the legitimacy of elections.” “Based on our thorough review, we decided against giving to some members who, through their statements and actions, undermine the legitimacy of our elections and institutions,” the spokesperson added.
While the Capitol riot does leave a black mark on American history, Toyota’s measured approach makes far more sense than rote condemnations of the 147 Republican congressmen and senators who voted to contest the 2020 election results. Partially due to the extraordinary election procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic and partially due to the Left’s documented attempts to pull the levers behind the scenes, serious concerns about the 2020 election remain. The Republicans who voted to contest the election were not attempting to “overthrow” it, but to delay the certification of the Electoral College vote until all their concerns had been addressed.
Ironically, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) — one of the leaders of the 2021 impeachment of Donald Trump — himself voted to contest the 2016 election, joining many of his fellow Democrats in repeating baseless Russia collusion claims.
Yet many on the Left vociferously condemned Toyota’s measured decision. The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank pledged that he will no longer buy another Toyota vehicle. “Toyota likes to say its cars are ‘made in America’ — while its actions are unmaking America,” he baselessly alleged.
The Lincoln Project launched an ad campaign, declaring, “We will also digitally blanket the top 20 Toyota dealerships in the country.”
On Thursday, Toyota appeared to cave on the issue. The company announced that its PAC would stop contributing to those eevil Republicans who did in 2021 what Democrats did in 2017.
“Our bipartisan PAC equally supports Democrats and Republicans running for Congress. In fact, in 2021, the vast majority of the contributions went to Democrats and Republicans who supported the certification of the 2020 election,” Toyota’s statement began.
“We understand that the PAC decision to support select Members of Congress who contested the results troubled some stakeholders. We are actively listening to our stakeholders and, at this time, we have decided to stop contributing to those Members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election,” the statement concluded.
Toyota did not pledge to stop giving to all 147 Republicans in perpetuity, as the activists demand. (In fact, the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center has called for Congress to censure or expel every single Republican who contested the 2020 election results.) Instead, the company echoed other companies in pledging to pause contributions for now.
Even so, leftists are celebrating this cancel culture effort.
“All of this is notable in part because of the message it sends to other businesses: the insurrectionist riot has not been forgotten, and members of Congress who endorsed the rioters’ goal have earned pariah status,” MSNBC’s Steve Benen wrote. “Corporations need to realize that their contributions are receiving greater scrutiny, and those that choose to support these anti-election Republicans financially will face public pressure.”
Yet if so-called “anti-election Republicans” are now considered “pariahs,” what about the “anti-election Democrats” who contested the election in 2017? If the Republicans who contested the election but who vocally condemned the Capitol riot are held culpable for the violence, what about the Democrats who spouted Black Lives Matter talking points about “institutional racism” among police and who covered for violent antifa riots by referring to them as “peaceful protests”?
Democrats looked the other way for months over the summer of 2020, when riots supposedly aimed at achieving racial justice destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments. At least 26 people died in the riots, which stretched on for months.
Toyota must pledge to cut off all funding for the “anti-election” Jamie Raskin (who contested the 2016 election) and the “insurrectionary” Nancy Pelosi (who said, “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country. Maybe there will be” after the death of George Floyd). What about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who infamously encouraged leftist demonstrators to harass Trump administration staff in public places?
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Those who truly care about political violence cannot afford to overlook the violence on the Left and the Democrats’ shameless excusing of it. Where’s the Lincoln Project ad targeting corporations giving to Raskin, Pelosi, and Waters? Where’s the CREW report on donations to these “anti-election,” “insurrectionary” Democrats?
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