Toyota Defends Donations to Anti-Election Certification Republicans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report published by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington last week found that Republican members of Congress who had voted against certifying the results of the 2020 elections had received over $4 million in corporate and industry donations since the Jan. 6 insurrection. After Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in January, hundreds of corporations released statements announcing they would stop all corporate donations to those Republicans who continued to promote Trump’s Big Lie. However, 109 of the 147 members who voted against election certification have received corporate or industry donations so far this year, according to the report.
The largest source of these donations is Toyota; this year the company gave $55,000 of donations to 37 different GOP representatives who refused to certify the election. In a statement, a Toyota spokesperson said “We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification.” The company claimed that after a “thorough review” there had been members of Congress they refrained from donating to due to their promotion of “Stop the Steal” rhetoric, but they did not say why voting against the certification of a democratic election was not sufficient reason to cut off donations to a candidate.