Thread by @kgosztola

In NH debate, Pete Buttigieg defended his billionaire donors. “We need politics that is defined not by who we reject but how we bring everybody into the fold.”

As if billionaires have not been part of the “fold.”

Thread on some of #PetesBillionaires, who contributed to him.

Note: The campaign contribution limit is $5,600 between the primary and general election.

Most of the billionaires in this thread, who donated to Pete For America, contributed the legal maximum one can give to a candidate committee. #PetesBillionaires

Jonathan Gray is billionaire, who is president and COO of Blackstone, multinational private equity firm. He oversees hotel, industrial, office, retail, and residential properties in U.S., Asia, and Europe.

Gray contributed $2,800 to Pete on May 20, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Senator Elizabeth Warren previously wrote, “In wake of 2008 crisis, private equity firms like Blackstone went on shopping spree, snatching up apartment complexes and single-family homes that had been foreclosed.” #PetesBillionaires

In 2019, UN housing rapporteur Leilani Farha accused Blackstone of fueling the global housing crisis. Farha singled out Blackstone for “massively inflating rents and imposing an array of heavy fees and charges for ordinary repairs.”
theguardian.com/us-news/2019/m… #PetesBillionaires

Michael Sonnenfeldt is billionaire who chairs two separate investment firms, MUUS & Company, and Tiger 21.

Sonnenfeldt contributed $5,600 to Pete on July 1, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Sonnenfeldt also contributed $25,000 to Democratic Majority For Israel’s Super PAC, which funded ads against Sanders in Iowa.

He's on Israel Policy Forum's advisory council. In 2018, he gave $100,000 to American Bridge 21st Century, David Brock's Super PAC. #PetesBillionaires

One may also notice that Sonnenfeldt is on board of Center for New American Security (CNAS), a hawkish think tank that counts as its donors Northrop Grumman, Chevron, Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin, James Murdoch, Raytheon, BP America, JP Morgan, etc. #PetesBillionaires

Marc Lasry is a hedge fund billionaire, who founded Avenue Capital Group. He's been described as the "Clintons' favorite fund manager."

Lasry donated $2,800 to Pete on May 13, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Lasry invests in "the debt of distressed companies," and he "took Trump’s casino business, Trump Entertainment Resorts, into and out of bankruptcy" in 2009-2010.
institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1505p… #PetesBillionaires

In 2018, Lasry aligned with Trump administration's energy policy and—over objections from Navajo—he moved to save a coal plant that was about to shut down. The plant has turned Navajo land into a toxic dumping ground.thinkprogress.org/billionaire-cl… #PetesBillionaires

Lasry had a fund to invest in natural gas fracking. In 2016, with the industry slumping, he was confident good times would come again for oil and gas, as he bundled $270,000 for Hillary Clinton's campaign. huffpost.com/entry/fracking… #PetesBillionaires

Furthermore, in November 2011, when Avenue owned $513 million in debt accrued by publisher of National Enquirer, Lasry pressured the Enquirer to kill potentially unfavorable stories on the Clintons. politico.com/story/2016/11/… #PetesBillionaires

Seth Klarman is a hedge fund billionaire, who is a Never Trump Republican and now contributes to Democrats.

Klarman contributed $5,600 to Pete on May 24, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

.@MaxBlumenthal of @TheGrayzoneNews wrote a detailed report on Klarman.

He is Israel lobbyist, who donated $1,500,000 to Pacronym, Super PAC for Acronym. That group gave birth to Shadow Inc., which developed app for Iowa Caucuses. thegrayzone.com/2020/02/04/pro… #PetesBillionaires

Klarman also owned $911 million in Puerto Rico debt, as of July 2017. He objected when Trump pledged to wipe out the US territory's debt in aftermath of Hurricane Maria. He wrote an investor letter against debt forgiveness. cnbc.com/2017/10/20/hed… #PetesBillionaires

Mimi Haas is billionaire and widow of Peter Haas, who was CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.

She donated $2,800 on May 2, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Haas contributed $600,000 to Pacronym, the Super PAC setup by Acronym, which launched Shadow, which developed the app that made the Iowa Caucuses a fiasco.

Glenn Dubin is a hedge fund billionaire who co-founded Highbridge Capital. Dubin sold Highbridge to JP Morgan in 2004.

Dubin contributed $2,800 to Pete on May 20, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Dubin is co-chair of Castleton Commodities International, a “global merchant energy company.” Assets have included coal terminals, heavy investments in fracked gas, and Morgan Stanley’s Global Oil Merchanting business. hedgeclippers.org/hedge-fund-bil… #PetesBillionaires

In 2017, WSJ reported Haynesville Shale, “one of fracking’s hottest spots a decade ago,” was "making a comeback."

Castleton spent $1 billion to buy 160,000 from Anadarko Petroleum’s land in East Texas, where it operated nearly 2,000 wells. #PetesBillionaires

Dubin retired after 40 years of hedge fund management in January.

Retirement came after media attention in the final months of 2019 related to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. reuters.com/article/us-hed… #PetesBillionaires

Reed Hastings, the billionaire CEO of Netflix, co-hosted a fundraiser for Pete in December 2019. In 2016, he spent $100 million promoting charter schools.

Hastings contributed $5,600 to Pete on April 14, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Reid Hoffman is a billionaire, who co-founded LinkedIn and sold it to Microsoft for $26.2 billion.

Hoffman contributed $2,800 to Pete on September 9, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

As @MaxBlumenthal detailed in a crucial report on Hoffman's link to Iowa Caucus fiasco, Tara McGowan, the CEO of Acronym, investment from Hoffman was crucial to the launch of the dark money group.
thegrayzone.com/2020/02/06/acr… #PetesBillionaires

Hoffman invested in American Engagement Technologies, which provided $100,000 to New Knowledge to wage disinformation campaign called "Project Birmingham." Facebook and Twitter were used to make it seem Russians were backing Roy Moore. mercurynews.com/2018/12/26/bil… #PetesBillionaires

Jonathan Tisch, Laurie Tisch, & Steve Tisch are billionaires who gave to Pete. Their wealth comes from Bob Tisch.

Jonathan contributed $2,800 on July 8, 2019.
Laurie contributed $2,800 on February 25, 2019.
Steve contributed $2,800 on April 24, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Bob Tisch died in 2005. He founded Loews Corporation, which is "active in insurance, drilling rigs, natural gas pipelines, and hotels." He also had stake in pro football team, the New York Giants.

In the past, Tisches have donated huge sums to Democrats. #PetesBillionaires

Jonathan Tisch's foundation contributed $100,000 to the Democratic National Convention's Philadelphia 2016 Host Committee.

Frederic Luddy is a billionaire and co-founder of the software company, ServiceNow.

Luddy contributed $2,800 on April 12, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Luddy seems like a Never Trump Republican. He contributed to Republican Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign in 2015. He's a big supporter of Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican senator in Nebraska.

(Oh, and he contributed to Kamala Harris in December.)
#PetesBillionaires

@MaxBlumenthal said investment*

I overlooked one important aspect of Reid Hoffman's biography. Let's go back for a moment.

Hoffman played role in trying to rehabilitate Jeffrey Epstein's public image after he was convicted for offenses involving sex with children. vox.com/recode/2020/1/… #PetesBillionaires

Daniel Lubetzky is a billionaire and founder of Kind Healthy Snacks. He is also on the advisory council for the Israel Policy Forum and board of directors for pro-Israel group, the ADL.

Lubetzky contributed $2,800 to Pete on June 27, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

Wendy Schmidt is a billionaire and wife of Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. Eric currently serves on Pentagon's "innovation board."

Wendy contributed to $5,600 to Pete on April 23, 2019.

Following Pete's "wine cave" fundraiser, Wendy co-hosted a coffee fundraiser, where $2,800 donors were offered an "intimate meeting with Mayor Pete." Multiple wealthy Silicon Valley donors were in attendance. vox.com/recode/2019/12… #PetesBillionaires

James Murdoch is part of the billionaire family of Rupert Murdoch, who is known for media empire that includes Fox News. James was implicated in phone hacking scandal in UK in 2011.

James contributed $2,800 to Pete on March 12, 2019. #PetesBillionaires

These are not all billionaires who Pete has brought into the "fold." But they are the billionaires who stand out.

As of now, we don't really know if any other billionaires contributed in January. Or who flocked to Pete after he claimed "victory" in Iowa. #PetesBillionaires

I could stop here, but Blackstone Group is highly respected among billionaire class. And, given Blackstone's impact on poor and working people, it's important to note several at Blackstone have contributed to Pete.

These are individuals in leadership positions at Blackstone:

Joan Solotar - Global Head of Private Wealth Solutions

Peter Koffler - Senior Managing Director/General Counsel for Hedge Fund Solutions Group

Michael McRaith - Managing Director of Insurance Solutions

More directors at Blackstone who contributed to Pete:

Michael Nash - Senior Managing Director/Chair of Real Estate Debt Strategies

Sean Klimczak - Global Head of Infrastructure

Christopher James - Senior Managing Director/COO of Tactical Opportunities

But that's not all. There's more directors at Blackstone that gave to Pete.

Byron Wien - Vice Chair of Private Wealth Solutions Group

Kathleen McCarthy - Global Co-Head of Real Estate

Bennett Goodman - Chair of Business Development Company (who retired in August)

Management at Blackstone have contributed at least $30,000 to Pete For America.

In addition to fueling a global housing crisis, Blackstone has also been a "driving force behind Amazon deforestation." theintercept.com/2019/08/27/ama…

Going through the contribution records of billionaires that contributed to Pete, one finds they are people who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton and Super PACs connected to corporate Democrats, like Common Ground PAC. #PetesBillionaires

#PetesBillionaires regularly contribute tens of thousands of dollars, if not more to Democratic National Committee, and state parties.

They are members of donor class that props up Democratic Party, and they are part of why the more things change, the more they stay the same.