George Soros, a left-wing Hungarian billionaire, is bankrolling groups exerting pressure and intimidation campaigns against the two moderate Democratic senators standing in the way of President Biden‘s $3.5 trillion expansion of the federal safety net.
Mr. Soros, a political megadonor who has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to progressive causes and candidates, is the lead financial backer of several advocacy groups that have harassed Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona in recent days.
One of the groups, Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), came under fire this weekend for accosting Ms. Sinema while she was teaching a class at Arizona State University.
Video from the incident, which LUCHA posted online, shows members of the groups harassing the lawmaker for opposing the $3.5 trillion social welfare bill. At some point, members of the group even followed Ms. Sinema into a campus restroom and filmed themselves berating her.
Mr. Soros is one of LUCHA’s prime funders. The left-wing billionaire’s philanthropic arm, the Open Society Foundation, has donated extensively to the group in recent years.
Throughout 2019, the last year for which records are available from the Open Society Foundation, Mr. Soros gave LUCHA nearly $2 million for “policy advocacy.” In 2019, alone, Mr. Soros gave the group $1.5 million.
Neither the Open Society Foundation nor LUCHA responded to requests for comment. LUCHA has publicly defended its harassment of Ms. Sinema, alleging that the lawmaker did not give the group a proper opportunity to make their voices heard.
“Sinema has shown zero interest to engage with her constituents, or meet her colleagues halfway on critical legislation,” the group said in a statement. “Sinema’s constituents have not been granted access to her office, they have been ignored, dismissed, and antagonized.”
Similarly, Mr. Soros is the lead financial backer of the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) Action and CASA de Maryland. Last week, the two groups led a protest in front of Mr. Manchin’s houseboat in Washington.
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