Pence refuses to break ties with group corporate America dumped for its racism

Mike Pence is scheduled to speak at an event on Monday sponsored by a dark money group that was recently cut off by corporate donors for overt acts of racism.

The Independent Mail newspaper reported that America First Policies is “organizing the event,” labeled “USMCA: A Better Deal for Workers” at Sargent Metal Fabricators in South Carolina.

America First Policies was founded in January 2017 by six of Trump’s top campaign aides to push his agenda. The group works alongside America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC.

“The two groups, which were formed in 2017 and support President Donald Trump’s policies, each raised $8.9 million in the first half of 2019,” the Independent Mail noted.

Pence is featured prominently on the website for America First Policies.

Several figures affiliated with the group have been caught in racist incidents, which led corporations to sever ties.

Carl Higbie resigned from the Trump White House in 2018 after he was caught making racist comments. On a radio show he hosted, Higbie said “the black race” has “a lax of morality.”

Higbie also said, “I believe wholeheartedly, wholeheartedly, that the black race as a whole, not totally, is lazier than the white race, period.” On the show, he also made sexist, anti-Muslim, and anti-gay remarks.

Despite those comments, Higbie was hired as America First Policies’ director of advocacy shortly thereafter.

Juan Pablo Andrade, a former Trump campaign adviser who was employed by America First Policies, was caught on camera praising Nazis.

“The only thing the Nazis didn’t get right is they didn’t keep fucking going!” he said.

John Loudon, a policy adviser for America First Policies, made racist comments on his Twitter account and attacked women, Muslims, and Democrats.

“Loudon called Barack Obama an ‘Islamchurian Candidate,’ in reference to the book and film about a politician who is brainwashed into becoming an assassin for an international conspiracy,” CNN reported in May of last year.

The three figures no longer work for the dark money group, but their comments were so toxic they scared off corporate America.

CVS Health, Southern Company, and Dow Chemical previously contributed a combined $1.6 million to the group. That money went away.

“Comments made by employees of America First Policies that were reported after we made our contributions are unacceptable to us. We have zero tolerance for discriminatory actions or behaviors, and as such we will not be making contributions to this organization in the future,” CVS Health told CNN last June.

Dow said their company “does not support organizations that demonstrate discriminatory language and/or actions” and said they would cut ties to the pro-Trump group.

But Pence and Trump have maintained their connection to the group. Pence’s standards clearly differ from the companies in question.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.