Leftist activist groups, sponsored by wealthy progressive donors, are paying former Obama aides to push environmentalist policies at the state level.
Since President Donald Trump took over as the top executive in the United States government, it almost seems like the holdovers from the Obama administration have constantly tried to undermine him. Whether it’s numerous leaks to various media agencies or government bureaucracies simply acting as they want, it almost seems like there really is a ‘shadow government.’
In a recent report, a non-profit libertarian think tank found evidence that a number of un-elected individuals related to the Barack Obama administration, along with a handful of liberal governors, with backing from wealthy environmental advocates, are pushing through strange policies in specific states.
These ‘global warming’ changes, in defiance of President Donald Trump and the electorate, are sweeping in design and could make life harder for Americans. The Obama ‘shadow cabinet,’ which is paid for with millions of funneled dollars, is taking part in ‘off the books’ actions in states.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, in its “Government for Rent” report, published dozens of emails. These emails detail the plan to undermine the Trump administration.
They also showcase a sort of quid pro quo, wherein governments at the state level have activists design global warming-themed legislation in exchange for private donations to their advocacy groups.
The report, written by senior CEI fellow Christopher C. Horner, focused on the Global Climate Action Summit, which is occurring this week.
This ‘summit’ is being hosted by famously left-leaning California Governor Jerry Brown, and co-chaired by the former Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, who now spends his days funding leftist groups (mostly anti-Second Amendment groups).
In attendance will be representatives from the United Nations, among others, and the event is being produced by ‘outside interests.’
According to the CEI, the ‘summit’ is part of a larger plan, which has governor’s offices in leftist states coordinating with activists and donors, who are financing a large, off-the-books operation to provide staff and other assets to elected officials.
Emails in the report showed that the national plan included up to $50 million in funding, to be paid by leftists like Tom Steyer and Bloomberg.
Worse still for those who aren’t on the left, the plan involves a ‘kitchen cabinet’ of environmental advocates and ex-aides from the Barack Obama White House, many of whom have experience working with the State Department on international climate change policies.
Many of these ex-Obama aides are angered that President Donald J. Trump decided to pull out of the Paris Accords. Many conservatives recognize that action as one of the catalysts responsible for U.S. economic growth and realize that liberals despise it.
According to the report, the plan involves ‘seeding’ the former Obama-era aides into various state and local positions.
These ‘refugees’ from the former administration would be privately funded members of the staff, and, as one email put it, they would be in place to resume “shaping the U.S. position” concerning energy and the leftist climate change agenda.
Their goal, among influencing policy, is also to make sure that ‘climate change,’ which has dropped off the list of issues the average American cares about since Obama left office, will be important in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.
Liberals believe that they will be able to easily attack Donald Trump on climate change policy, given his record of undoing the Environmental Protection Agency’s sweeping regulations, and because he pulled out of the Paris Accords, which were a bad deal that only forced the United States to actually hold to any standards.
CEI said that the documents they received, all obtained through open records requests, showed that non-profit groups were acting as “well-compensated” pass-through organizations, allowing donors to fund climate policy work, and hiring ex-Obama aides into governors’ offices in states like New York, California, and Washington.
All of this raises serious questions about ‘dark money’ expenditures, and the ethics (and legality) of allowing activist donors to bankroll leftist governors who will advance their climate change agenda.
While leftists regularly complain about donors and the money they give to republican and libertarian candidates, including absurd claims like the one David Hogg made, which suggested Donald Trump received millions of dollars from Russia, funneled through the NRA, it seems they don’t mind as much if it serves their purposes.
However, what’s going on in these governors’ offices raises questions for most Americans about how they’re complying with gift laws as they apply to elected officials, restrictions on private financing of official activities, and the transparency and reporting on this money being spent.
The political left, frustrated in their presidential hopes, seems to be forcing through their agenda by any means available to them.
