House Democratic candidate Scott Wallace, who likes to rant against big money in politics, gave a lot of big money himself to former President Barack Obama. As Fox News reports, the progressive multi-millionaire, who is engaged in a Congressional race with incumbent Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, came up with $100,000 for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Wallace also thought it not inappropriate to solicit work from Obama special counsel John Podesta — wondering if he could have the ambassadorship in South Africa.
But that is all in the past for Wallace, who now condemns the filthy lucre flowing in President Donald Trump’s direction.
“But when his buddies in Congress, like Paul Ryan and Brian Fitzpatrick, finally OK’d his massive tax cuts for corporations and billionaires, what did Trump do? Jetted to his Florida country club and bragged to a roomful of people who paid $200,000 to get in the door, that they all ‘just got a lot richer.’ Oooh, that’s rich,” reads a March news release.
Federal Election Commission documents and a news report from 2009 show that Wallace and wife contributed three times to Obama’s electoral fight in 2008, donating both to the Obama Victory Fund and the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
Wallace was also thinking of his own career as he helped Obama’s, writing to Podesta about his deep love for South Africa, where he had lived while managing the Wallace Global Fund. Wallace wasted no time in getting his request in:
“I know you must have a million things on your plate, but as I mentioned to you, Elizabeth and Smith Bagley were encouraging me to reach out to you sooner rather than later about a possible appointment in an Obama administration,” reads a Nov. 3, 2008 note from Wallace that he sent as an email to Podesta and was subsequently revealed by WikiLeaks.
Wallace suggested being ambassador to South Africa would be a perfect fit: “It has become my second country, and I would be deeply honored to be considered to represent President Obama as ambassador there,” he wrote.