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Security

Romney To Meet With Right-Wing Billionaire Sheldon Adelson

By Ali Gharib on May 29, 2012 at 4:09 pm

Right-wing billionaire Sheldon Adelson

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his family are unafraid of using their money in politics. They purportedly gave $20 million to Newt Gingrich’s failed run for the Republican presidential nomination — and reportedly weighed an astounding $100 million donation. But with Gingrich dispatched, Adelson is now turning his attention to presumptive nominee Mitt Romney. It’s not clear if Adelson has yet poured millions of dollars into SuperPACs associated with the Romney campaign, and we may never know: Adelson vowed this winter to keep most of his election giving secret.

We do know that Adelson was slated to meet today in his Las Vegas office with Romney, according to a CBS report citing people close to the billionaire.

So who is Adelson? Here’s a reminder of some of the priorities and far right-wing views held by the owner of Las Vegas Sands Corporation and its Venetian hotel:

  • In February, Adelson and his wife reportedly joined up with the Koch brothers for the first time in their twice-yearly gathering of major right-wing donors largely obsessed with ending regulation on business. Reports suggested that the Adelsons would contribute to American Crossroads, an attack-dog Super PAC run by Karl Rove.

  • One of the reasons Adelson wants to keep his political giving private is that his gambling empire and, relatedly, close relationship with the Chinese government awkwardly juxtapose with Christian conservative views (Adelson’s been denounced) and Republican antipathy on China (including from Romney). Adelson allegedly helped crush a congressional measure by House Republicans opposing Beijing’s Olympic bid. “The bill will never see the light day, Mr. Mayor. Don’t worry about it,” he reportedly told Beijing’s mayor in 2001 after phoning then House GOP Majority Whip Tom DeLay (TX). Adelson went on to get a lucrative gambling license from China to build a casino in Macau.

  • Part of Adelson’s Chinese dealings, which came under federal scrutiny in 2011, went through a non-profit called the Adelson Center for U.S.-China Enterprise. According to a WikiLeaks cable flagged by Salon, the association, which was meant to facilitate business between the U.S. and China, was shut down by the Chinese government after some “missteps” with “funds transfer mechanisms” used by Las Vegas Sands. Unlike competitors, the cable said, Las Vegas Sands lobbied Beijing directly instead of going through Macau authorities.

  • Gingrich told NBC News that Adelson puts a priority on far-right policies on Israel. Adelson opposed the American Israeli Affairs Committee — threatening to withdraw financial support — when the group backed a Bush administration-led peace process in 2007. Adelson has since said, “There won’t be a two-state solution; there won’t be a one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has, in the past, suggested the two-state solution was “suicide” for Israel

  • Adelson’s right-wing views on Israel have, at times, descended into bigotry against Palestinians, who he thinks do not have legitimate aspirations to a state of their own. When Newt Gingrich said Palestinians are an “invented” people — a talking point the New Yorker’s David Remnick said was “propaganda” — Adelson backed him up. “Read the history of those who call themselves Palestinians,” he told a group of young American Jews visiting Israel late last year, “and you will hear why Gingrich said recently that the Palestinians are an invented people.”

    • While Mitt Romney claims to support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and advocates for a tough foreign policy on China, the man he was slated to meet with today in Las Vegas has espoused a nearly opposite set of policy views. He’s also shown no timidity in throwing around his money to pursue those political interests in the U.S., China and Israel.

    Justice

    Gingrich Flips From Calling Romney The ‘Most Anti-Immigrant Candidate,’ To Claiming He Can Win 40 Percent of Latinos

    By Amanda Peterson Beadle on May 29, 2012 at 2:40 pm

    During the GOP presidential primary, Newt Gingrich called presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney the “most anti-immigrant candidate” in the race and ran Spanish-language ads calling Romney “anti-immigrant,” and it appears that Gingrich was right to worry that Romney’s policies would turn off Latinos in the general election. A recent poll shows that only a quarter of Latino voters see Romney positively.

    Now that the primary’s over, however, Gingrich suddenly wants to sing a different tune. In an interview with Meet the Press’ David Gregory last Sunday, Gingrich claimed that by emphasizing his economic and education policies — which include massive cuts to education in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy — Romney can erase nearly all of his deficit among Latinos:

    GINGRICH: The question is, if you campaign on those issues…does that overcome whatever the Democratic attack is? And I think he’ll probably get the same percent that George W. Bush did, which will be up in the 40s.

    Watch here:

    It’s unlikely that Latino voters, or any voters, for that matter, will embrace Romney’s less-education-and-more-tax-cuts-for-Donald-Trump polices if Romney campaigns openly on what he stands for. Such an open campaign appears unlikely, however. Romney has already attempted to obfuscate his views in the general election by trying to Etch-A-Sketch away the hardline immigration policies that he espoused during the GOP primary before he needed to woo moderate voters.

    Back in January, Romney said his immigration plan would be to make undocumented immigrants “self-deport.” And he proudly accepted the endorsement of Kris Kobach, the anti-immigrant author of Arizona and Alabama’s immigration laws, who is still advising the Romney campaign about immigration. Since he effectively locked up the nomination, however, Romney tried (and failed) to distance himself from Kobach and a Republican Party official even tried to claim that Romney is “still deciding what his position on immigration is.”

    Election

    Two Weeks After Endorsing Romney, Gingrich Is No Longer ‘Mad’ That Bain Killed Jobs

    By Alex Seitz-Wald on May 18, 2012 at 9:54 am

    During the GOP primary, Newt Gingrich made attacking Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital one of his primary focuses. “Those of us who believe in free markets and those of us who believe that in fact the whole goal of investment is entrepreneurship and job creation,” Gingrich said in New Hampshire in January, “we find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” “You have to raise questions when somebody comes in, takes over a company…and then drains of its money and walks off leaving people behind on unemployment,” Gingrich told Bloomberg of Romney’s time at Bain.

    Gingrich’s Super PAC was even more aggressive, purchasing a lengthy documentary-style video that assailed Bain Capital, and running other ads hitting Romney for killing jobs at Bain.

    But now that Gingrich is supporting Romney and campaigning for him, the former House Speaker is criticizing attacks on Bain, saying they won’t work. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

    Gingrich did not exactly recant, but did acknowledge the ineffectiveness of one attack he used on Romney – the private equity firm Bain Capital. When Gingrich accused Romney and Bain of taking over companies and downsizing them at the expense of workers, he was widely condemned by fellow Republicans and eventually backed off.

    This week the Obama campaign released an ad along those same lines. Gingrich said his experience should be a lesson to Obama: “that dog won’t hunt.”

    Gingrich said the attack will not resonate in voters’ minds as they think: “You want me to be mad because in one company somewhere Romney may have in fact been involved in someone losing their job while you as president have been involved in millions of people losing their jobs?”

    Perhaps Gingrich just thinks attacks on Romney’s record won’t be successful, or perhaps he’s trying to Etch-A-Sketch away the myriad attacks he launched against on the former Massachusetts governor during the primary, now that Romney is the presumed GOP nominee and it’s useful for Gingrich to curry favor with him.

    NEWS FLASH

    Gingrich: Mitt Romney is still a liar but please vote for him anyway | Among the litany of charges Newt Gingrich made against Mitt Romney before endorsing him yesterday was calling the former Massachusetts governor “a liar.” On CNN today Wolf Blitzer asked Gingrich whether he still thinks thinks that Romney is a liar. While he refused to utter to word, Gingrich allowed, “the governor said things at time that weren’t true.” “So the answer is yes?” Blitzer pressed. Gingrich half nodded, but also suggested that Romney is still less dishonest than President Obama. Watch it:

    By Alex Seitz-Wald on May 3, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    Election

    In Concession Speech, Gingrich Thanks Super PAC Funders: ‘It Would Be Impossible For Me To Be Here’ Without Them

    By Alex Seitz-Wald on May 2, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Erstwhile presidential candidate Newt Gingrich officially suspended his campaign today after announcing he would do so last week, and among the handful of people he thanked by name were Sheldon and Miriam Adelson. The couple were by far the largest donors to the super PAC supporting Gingrich’s presidential bid, and their $25 million donations nearly single-handedly kept the Gingrich campaign alive in its last days.

    GINGRICH: And of course, while they weren’t directly associated with the campaign, it would be impossible for me to be here and thank everybody without mentioning Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, who single-handedly came pretty close to matching Romney’s super PAC.

    Watch it:

    Gingrich’s praise of the Adelsons, and admission of their importance in his campaign, underscores how super PACs have fundamentally changed the political landscape, allowing a single household to spend unlimited amounts of money to nearly “single-handedly” fund candidates.

    But his comments may also raise some eyebrows, as super PACs are legally not allowed to coordinate with campaigns and should exist entirely independently of the campaign. Gingrich notes the casino mogul and his wife “weren’t directly associated with the campaign,” but his public gratitude underscore the porous rules governing campaign finance in the post-Citizens United era.

    Gingrich did not endorse Romney during his speech, but is expected to sometime in the near future, as the presumed GOP nominee has vowed to help Gingrich retire his campaign debt.

    NEWS FLASH

    BREAKING: Newt Gingrich To Drop Out Next Week | The inevitable has finally come for Newt Gingrich, or will next Tuesday when he will suspend his campaign for the presidency, according to Fox News. Gingrich, however, will continue to campaign this week. Senior campaign aides told the conservative news network that the former House Speaker will “more than likely” endorse presumed nominee Mitt Romney at that time. Gingrich had been hoping for a strong showing in Delaware’s primary last night, but Romney bested him by a 2 to 1 margin.

    By Alex Seitz-Wald on Apr 25, 2012 at 10:03 am

    LGBT

    Gingrich Urges Support For Discriminatory Amendment, Warns Of Gay Marriage ‘Danger’ In North Carolina

    By Igor Volsky on Apr 24, 2012 at 10:32 am

    Thrice married GOP presidential candidate New Gingrich is calling on voters in North Carolina to support Amendment 1 when they go to the polls on May 8. The measure that would ban same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships in the state constitution, expanding North Carolina’s existing legislative ban against marriage equality.

    “This is part of the same great process this year that’s involved with President Obama, and that’s involved with the whole danger of what’s happening to our basic beliefs,” Gingrich warned. “There’s an effort by radicals at every level to change who we are, to change what America is and to change for our children into a future that I think will be much worse.” Watch it:

    While bipartisan opposition to the Amendment 1 continues to grow, a recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 45 percent of North Carolina voters believe that marriage equality will be legal within a generation, while 41 percent think it will continue to be illegal. Independents and Democrats predict the change, while more than half of all Republicans say the status quo will continue.

    The Obama campaign has spoken out against Amendment 1, but it’s unlikely that the president will directly address the matter when he appears before students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill later today.

    Security

    Gingrich: Extend Right To Gun Ownership To ‘Every Person On The Planet’

    By Eli Clifton on Apr 13, 2012 at 4:54 pm

    Speaking at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual conference today, Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich advocated for extending the rights of the second amendment — which refer to the “right to bear arms” — beyond U.S. borders and, indeed, to the population of the entire world.

    The former Speaker of the House offered some friendly criticism to the NRA’s leadership, accusing them of being “too timid,” before launching into a proposal for a new U.N. treaty guaranteeing a universal right to gun ownership, he explained:

    A Gingrich presidency will submit to the United Nations a treaty that extends the right to bear arms as a human right for every person on the planet because every person on the planet deserves the right to defend themselves from those who would oppress them, those would exploit them, rape them or kill them.

    Gingrich, who finds himself in a distant second place in the Republican primary contest, went on to attack the U.N. “small arms treaty” — which has neither been signed nor, as frequently misreported, infringes on the Second Amendment — as keeping us “psychologically on defense.” Gingrich argued that mass gun ownership could be used to empower populist revolts against global injustices:

    Far fewer women would be raped, far fewer children would be killed, far fewer towns would be destroyed, if people everywhere on the planet had the right to bear arms. And far fewer dictators would survive if people had the right to bear arms everywhere on the planet.

    Watch him:

    But Gingrich wasn’t just satisfied to explain that world peace that would ensue if the number of guns in circulation — including, presumably, in war zones — were to increase. He also floated a sinister theory about the motivations behind those who advocate for global arms reduction:

    Let’s take the George Soroses and the Hillary Clintons head on. They represent a world in which elites disarm the rest of us so we are then helpless when elites turn sour and when evil reappears.

    Gingrich’s campaign has frequently fallen back on fear mongering and demonizing of political opponents and religious minority groups. But as his campaign runs low on funds and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney surges toward securing the nomination, Gingrich appears to be falling back on conspiracy theories and increasingly radical policy positions to keep his candidacy alive.

    Election

    Former Fox News Employee Newt Gingrich: Fox Is Biased And In The Tank For Romney

    By Adam Peck on Apr 12, 2012 at 10:00 am

    Newt Gingrich, who just a year ago was on the payroll at Fox News channel as a political analyst, attacked his former employer at a private campaign event yesterday, accusing the conservative cable news channel of being in the tank for Mitt Romney.

    Real Clear Politics was granted access to the event, and flagged Gingrich’s remarks:

    “I think FOX has been for Romney all the way through,” Gingrich said during the private meeting — to which RealClearPolitics was granted access — at Wesley College. “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.” [...]

    “I assume it’s because Murdoch at some point [who] said, ‘I want Romney,’ and so ‘fair and balanced’ became ‘Romney,’ ” Gingrich said. “And there’s no question that Fox had a lot to do with stopping my campaign because such a high percentage of our base watches FOX.”

    Fox News ended its contract with Gingrich last spring as it became clear that the former Speaker intended to launch a presidential campaign.

    The decision to admonish Fox News is a departure from other recent unsuccessful Republican presidential candidates, several of whom have converted their elevated prominence on the national stage into lucrative contracts with the network. Former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin signed a deal with the network, and 2008 candidate Mike Huckabee now has his own weekend show.

    Update

    “This is nothing other than Newt auditioning for a windfall of a gig at CNN–that’s the kind of man he is,” a spokeswoman for Fox News responded in a statement to Yahoo News. “Not to mention, he’s still bitter about the fact that we terminated his contributor contract.”

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