Vice President Joe Biden on Monday demanded that pro-Republican interest groups shed light on their “shady” funding. The Chamber of Commerce fired back, saying that Democrats’ recent attacks on the issue are an attempt to “distract Americans from a failed economic agenda.”
President Barack Obama on Saturday launched the new line of attack on groups backing Republicans that have not revealed their sources of funding. Democratic operatives on Sunday continued pushing that rhetoric. Biden’s speech shows that Democrats are not ready to give up on the new strategy, even though it has not been successful and resulted in significant push back.
“I challenge the Chamber of Commerce to tell us how much of the money they’re investing is from foreign sources,” he said. “I challenge them, if I’m wrong I will stand corrected. But show me.”
Biden also lashed out at Karl Rove, accusing him and others like him of “raising tens of millions of dollars from shady sources, shady in the sense that we don’t know where the money is coming from.”
The allegations that the Chamber is spending foreign money on U.S. elections have not been substantiated, and a slew of media heavyweights have come out against the Democrats for levying the charges, saying they are baseless and detached from issues American voters are concerned about.
Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s top lobbyists, on Monday hit back at the administration.
“We are seeing an attempt to demonize specific groups and distract Americans from a failed economic agenda. With three weeks until Election Day, it’s time to return to the discussion that Americans care most about: job creation. The Chamber will stay focused on representing and advocating for an agenda of economic growth and speaking out against policies that are counter to those objectives,” Josten said.