News Clips

The fundraising numbers signal just how potent the election fraud argument became with Trump's most loyal supporters, experts told ABC News. Paul S. Ryan, a vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a Washington-based good-government group, called the fundraising effort deceptive. "It was based entirely on fraud ... by Team Trump alleging that there were problems in the election, that Trump needed money to hire lawyers to fight and that he won the election," Ryan said. "And in my experience watchdogging money in politics closely for more than 20 years, this is unprecedented."

The events of January 6 in Washington, D.C., were shocking and appalling. We saw armed rioters, incited by President Trump, storm our center of government and loot the U.S. Capitol — which led to at least five deaths. The violent mob, spurred by conspiracy theories and lies, failed in its attempt to overturn the results of an election — the same election Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security said was, "the most secure in American history.” But this tragic attack on our Capitol should not be understood as just a reaction to the incitement of insurrection of the outgoing president. This horrific event came after years of ignoring structural weaknesses in our Republic. Our democracy was, and continues to be, undermined — and we must immediately fix it.

This is not FirstEnergy’s first bailout nor first pay-to-play scandal. Ohio needs to make it the utility’s last scandal by shining a light on dark money and adding conflict-free members to the PUCO.

“We should have standardize rules and that’s what this bill is doing,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at the advocacy group Common Cause. “This hopefully would tamp down on all of that chaotic litigation by getting these rules settled and setting a national standard.

Now is the time for political leadership. In the wake of the Jan. 6 armed insurrection attempt to overturn our 2020 presidential election, we should expect our elected leaders to strongly confront the lies, conspiracy theories and white nationalism that have polarized this nation. But it will take more than that. Our democracy was, and continues to be, under attack, and we must immediately fix it. The U.S. House of Representatives will soon be voting on H.R. 1, the For the People Act, the most transformative democracy reform package since the Watergate era. This comprehensive set of democratic reforms and anti-corruption measures will protect and expand the right to vote, reduce the role of big money in politics, end racial and partisan gerrymandering and amplify the voices of hard-working Americans.

“These recent moves by corporate America to distance themselves from President Trump are a good thing, but also a predictable PR move,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a watchdog group focusing on money in politics. “Their commitment to this will really be shown in coming months and years,” he said, “whether or not they return to funding not only Donald Trump, but also those who enabled Donald Trump to do what he’s done.”