Defense firms quietly resume political giving after post-insurrection pause – By Joe Gould (Defense News) / June 5 2021
WASHINGTON ― Defense companies have slowly ramped up their political donations to the Republicans they once purported to shun over a refusal to acknowledge President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings.
The reversal follows a pledge by dozens of American corporations in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection to suspend political contributions, some specifically targeting Republicans who rejected Donald Trump’s election loss. As many of those firms returned to political giving in the first fiscal quarter of 2022, the defense industry has followed suit.
“In response to the deeply disturbing violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, our U.S. political action committee has suspended all donations while we assess the path forward,” BAE Systems spokeswoman Tammy Thorp said in a statement at the time.
But BAE began to reverse course on March 30 and has since given $195,000 to Democrats and Republicans alike. Its employee-supported PAC gave $15,000 on April 30 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by one of eight GOP senators who voted to decertify election results: Senate Armed Services Committee member Rick Scott, of Florida.
