Chuck Schumer Denounces Koch Industries on Russia, but Ignores Democratic Donors’ Ties

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) delivered a blistering floor speech earlier this month, taking aim at Koch Industries for its continued operations in Russia and public opposition to imposing sanctions on the country.

“Shamefully, Koch Industries is continuing to do business in Putin’s Russia, and putting their profits ahead of defending democracy,” said Schumer, who went on to denounce the “Kochs” for lobbying against sanctions.

“Every senator needs to condemn this push by the Koch brothers and call on Koch Industries to immediately suspend their operations in Russia. I look forward to every tough-talking Senate Republican to come here to the floor and call out the Koch brothers for undermining America’s resolve against Putin’s illegal, unprovoked, and criminal invasion of Ukraine,” continued the majority leader.

Schumer also stated that Senate Democrats were working on legislation to deny certain tax benefits to American companies that continue to operate in Russia.

Notably however, Schumer declined to call out any other company by name, and for good reason: Many are major Democratic donors.

The Yale School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute has compiled a master list cataloguing major companies’ responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, evaluating those responses on a grade-letter scale, ranging from “F” (“companies that are just continuing business-as-usual in Russia”) to “A” (“companies totally halting Russian engagements or completely exiting Russia”). According to its authors, the purpose of the list is to “challenge companies to voluntarily curtail operations in Russia beyond the bare minimum legally required by sanctions.” As Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld — who heads the research team — put it, companies’ decisions to pull out are both substantively and symbolically meaningful.

“Substantively, this tyrant now can’t parade around as being this totalitarian leader in total control of civil society. It strips away the aura of invincibility,” Sonnenfeld told National Review.

“On a symbolic level, it cuts through the propaganda that somehow the world is condemning a neo-Nazi-run Ukraine when in fact they see the world is condemning them [Russia]. They become the rogue nation of Russia,” he added.

A number of contributors to Schumer and his leadership PAC during the cycle remain intertwined with Russia.

In 2022, for example the Huntsman Corporation — which is “continuing business-as-usual” in Russia and thus earned a grade of “F” from the research team at Yale  — gave $5,000 to Chuck Schumer. Microsoft, which donated $30,000 to Schumer’s leadership PAC in 2020, earned a “C” from the Yale team for “scaling back some significant business operations but continuing some others” by suspending the sale of new products, but continuing to serve existing users in Russia. Goldman Sachs, another contributor to Schumer’s PAC, has suspended operations in Russia, but also received a “C” grade for purchasing Russian debt.

Other Democratic donors such as AstraZeneca and Credit Suisse have all received a grade of “D” for “postponing future planned investment/development/marketing while continuing substantive business.” Asked to distinguish between a grade of “F” and “D,” Sonnenfeld said there wasn’t much of a difference.

“There is not a huge difference between the ‘F’ grade and the ‘D’ as in dog grade,” he explained, before going on to call the difference between the higher and lower grade “things that were done that were cosmetic or are perhaps very inconsequential, but we had to legally recognize that they did something.”

It seems obvious that Schumer’s criticism was narrowly tailored and focused on Koch Industries because its political involvement largely comprises spending on Republican candidates, instead of Democratic ones (as Microsoft does) or on both parties (as Huntsman, Goldman, AstraZeneca, and Credit Suisse do). Sonnenfeld expressed frustration with political meddling in this area.

“I think it’s unnecessary for politicians to jump in at the eleventh hour,” said Sonnenfeld, who cited the fact that more than 700 firms have voluntarily withdrawn or curtailed involvement in Russia without political pressure. “There’s no reason to politicize it now. It’d probably the best off to let consumers and investors and employees speak out since those are the primary constituencies companies care about.”

Senator Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the majority leader’s treatment of his donors, versus those of his political opponents.