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realclearpolitics.com
Posted By Tim Hains
October 1, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried Donated Multi-Millions
To McConnell’s List Of Anti-Trump Republicans

Michael Lewis, author of the new book “Going Infinite” about disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, told “60 Minutes” that the former finance CEO met with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell ahead of the 2022 election to help pick “Republican candidates at odds with Donald Trump” to fund.

Watch the full interview here via “60 Minutes.” link at web site

“The subtext of this dinner is Sam is gonna write tens of millions of dollars of checks to a super PAC that Mitch McConnell is then gonna use to get elected people who are not hostile to democracy,” Lewis said.

MICHAEL LEWIS: Sam Bankman-Fried ends up with a portfolio heavily concentrated in two things. Pandemic prevention, because there really are things the government should be doing. And the other thing that made his list that was so interesting was Donald Trump. He took the view that all the big existential problems are gonna require the United States government to be involved to solve them.

And if the democracy is undermined, it— like, we don’t have our democracy anymore, all these problems are less likely to be solved. And he saw Trump trying to undermine the democracy, and he thought, “Trump is— belongs on the list of existential risks.”

60 MINUTES: To that end, Lewis writes that in 2022, Bankman-Fried met with the most unlikely of allies, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. According to Lewis, Bankman-Fried wanted to help McConnell fund Republican candidates at odds with Donald Trump.

JON WERTHEIM, 60 MINUTES: You’re flying with Sam and he tells you about a meeting he’s gonna have with Mitch McConnell.

MICHAEL LEWIS: Well, the interesting thing starts before we even get on the plane. I meet him at the airport, and he comes tumbling out of a car. And he’s in his cargo shorts and his T-shirt. And he’s got, balled up in his hand— it takes me a while to see what it is, but it’s a blue suit. It’s got more wrinkles than any blue suit ever had. It’s been just jammed into this little ball. (laughs) And a shoe, like, falls out of the pile that he’s got in his arms. And I said, like, “What— why you have the suit?” And he says— (laughs) he says, “Mi— Mitch McConnell really cares what you wear when you— (laughs) when you meet with him.” And he’s having dinner in six hours with Mitch McConnell. And I— I said, “Well, you got the suit. Is there— you got a belt?” He goes, “No. I don’t have a belt.” I said, “You got— you have a shirt?” He goes, “No. No shirt,” “and the suit, you really can’t really wear that suit.” And he goes, “Yeah. But they told me to bring a suit.”

60 MINUTES: According to Lewis, Bankman-Fried wanted to help McConnell fund Republican candidates at odds with Donald Trump…

MICHAEL LEWIS: What is the subtext of this dinner, is Sam is gonna write tens of millions of dollars of checks to a super PAC that Mitch McConnell is then gonna use to get elected people who are not “hostile to democracy.”

JON WERTHEIM, 60 MINUTES: Wait. So, Mitch McConnell has a list of Republican candidates who are, sort of, on the playing field for democracy versus what he deemed outside?

MICHAEL LEWIS: He and his team had done the work to distinguish between actual deep Trumpers and people who were just seeming to approve of Donald Trump but we actually willing to govern.

60 MINUTES: Bankman-Fried ended up giving multi-millions in support of the Republican candidates. Back in 2020, Bankman-Fried had ranked among Joe Biden’s biggest donors. As 2024 approached, he planned on spending more, albeit in the most unconventional way.