EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Scott Brown Begs David Koch For Money
by Brad Johnson, Wonk Room, Think Progress, March 7, 2011
At the public dedication of MIT’s David H. Koch Integrative Cancer Institute last Friday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) effusively thanked conservative billionaire David Koch for supporting his election in 2010 and made a plea for help in his re-election campaign next year. David Koch directly gave the National Republican Senatorial Committee $30,400 in November 2009, and the Koch Industries PAC threw in $15,000 to NRSC plus $5,000 more directly to Brown right before Brown’s special election. In the following exchange, Brown thanks Koch and his wife Julia (off-camera) for their support, saying “I can certainly use it again”:
BROWN: Your support during the election, it meant a ton. It made a difference and I can certainly use it again. Obviously, the –
KOCH: When are you running for the next term?
BROWN: ’12.
KOCH: Oh, okay.
BROWN: I’m in the cycle right now. We’re already banging away.
Watch it:
Brown then lavished praise on the Kochs and MIT president Susan Hockfield for establishing the research center with $100 million, about 0.5 percent of Koch’s toxic petrochemical fortune. Koch’s Tea Party politicians in the House are working to negate his contribution by cutting $1.6 billion in federal funding for the National Instititues of Health.
Brown has been a good Koch foot soldier, voting to protect Koch’s carbon pollution and complaining about the “onerous” estate tax.
Transcript:
BROWN: Your support during the election, it meant a, it meant a ton. It made a, it made a difference and I can certainly use it again. Obviously, the uh . . .
KOCH: When are you running, uh, for the next term?
BROWN: ’12.
KOCH: Oh, okay.
BROWN: I’m in the cycle, I’m in the cycle right now. We’re already banging away. But you guys should all be very proud. I mean this is amazing. I’ve actually taken the tour and uh just the things you aim to attack this issue is, is huge.
SUSAN HOCKFIELD, MIT PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator.
BROWN: Thank you, for your leadership.
KOCH: Susan was the main uh uh person who created the idea of combining the uh the bioengineers with the cancer researchers and then uh, so she’s a brilliant lady and a leader here.
HOCKFIELD: Hi, David. David’s enthusiasm, Tyler’s [Jacks, Koch Institute director] genius, and I just said, sure, let’s do it.
KOCH: Ha ha ha!
UPDATEThe Boston Globe's Mark Arsenault notes:
In public appearances, the senator says that he's not interested in politicking right now, that there will be time for it in 2012 — his re-election year. Yet in the video, Brown tells Koch he's politicking right now.
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