US businesses cut Republican party donations in wake of riot
The fallout from the Capitol siege has begun to hit the Republican Party in the wallet, with major businesses canceling their political contributions.
Citigroup, the third-largest bank in the US, has put a moratorium on political donations after violence broke out in the Capitol
Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Marriott International and a major health insurance company confirmed on Sunday that they were rethinking their political donations following the deadly Capitol siege on Wednesday.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), which represents regional insurers that cover about one in three Americans, cited issues with the Republican lawmakers who voted against confirming Joe Biden s electoral victory that same day.
30 to $40 billion. that s right. real money, be even for marriott. that s real money. but they haven t said they would pay for a new passport simply because it was stolen. so what s that tell you? there s a mind frame on this issue at marriott that says, this is about fraud and we ll protect you against fraud, the way your credit card company protects you if your credit card number is stolen. but supposing that what this is really about is tracking you, fareed, as you move around the world, doing the show. right? you may say, i don t want the chinese tracking me. i need a new passport so that it s harder for them to track me. and in that case, so far, at least, marriott isn t interested in paying for your passport or that of 360 million other people. and what is the u.s. government s response to this? the u.s. government s response is, don t worry. with a passport number alone, somebody can t engage in the fraud. so they re sort of taking the same position that marriott is.
two weeks ago, the massive marriott hotel conglomerate announced one of its reservation systems had been hacked. the information of some 500 million guests was at risk, the company said. names, passport numbers, arrival and departure information and credit card numbers. but according to a fascinating story in the new york times, these hackers likely weren t interested in going down to walmart and buying a tv with your credit card. their plot was much more sinister. my next guest, david sanger, has the lead by line of that story and is author of the perfect weapon. a must-read. david, marriott has made this out in many ways to be a routine criminal operation. that s right, fareed. because we re now all so used to hacks. we re all so used to getting
you ve got the security clearance data, their health care data, and with marriott, you have where they re traveling, with whom and when. it s really interesting. of all that information stolen from anthem, marriott and the office of personnel management, we ve never once seen it being sold on the dark web. what s that tell you? they want to keep it for themselves. marriott s response is also i mean, explain what s going on here. because there is potentially a huge bill that comes out of this, because marriott has said, for example, if your passport information was compromised, we re going to we ll pay for the processing of a new passport. with a caveat. the caveat has been, if it s been compromised and we ve seen it used in a fraud, we will buy your new passport. new passport in the united states, about $110. so you multiply that out by the 360 million passports stolen, many of which were nonamerican, you get to, as you say, billions and billions of dollars.