An Unlikely Republican Financier Says Hillary Clinton Might Be Better Than Any GOP Candidate

Charles Koch, one of the billionaire-industrialist Koch brothers, has surprisingly given a sideways endorsement of Hillary Clinton. On ABC’s The Week, he said “it’s possible,” that Hillary would be better than a Republican in the White House. The Kochs, whose investments into politics have helped nudge the United States to the right over the last few decades, are notorious for the amount of money they put into election funds and lobbying for conservative and libertarian causes.

The Kochs are reported to have raised over $880 million for the 2016 presidential election, twice what they raised in 2012. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Jon Kasich and Chris Christie all received money from the Koch’s donor network, to name a few. Basically, they funded everyone but Trump. So to hear Koch shift gears and give credit to the Clintons is surprising. Charles Koch even went on to praise Bill Clinton over George W. Bush:

“In some ways. In other ways, I mean he wasn’t an exemplar. But as far as the growth of government, the increase in spending, it was 2.5 times under Bush than it was under Clinton,”

When news of this kinda-endorsement came across Hillary’s desk, she hit back in a Twitter statement that will surely win her some kudos from progressives and independent voters.

The Kochs have played an extremely active role in denying climate change according to GreenPeace, and a 2013 Rolling Stone article showed their influence in the government and scientific community.

And while the Kochs get painted as the bad guys pulling the puppet strings more often than not, they have also pumped quite a bit of their never-ending funds into criminal justice reform, which has been a hot-button issue for the democratic candidates.

It’s definitely an interesting time in politics, and when the Kochs give credit to a democrat, that speaks volumes of where the GOP is at currently.

(Via Reuters)