If it’s fair to judge politicians by the company they keep, then there is at the same time something very revealing and completely unsurprising about the fact that notorious coal baron Robert Murray hosted a "very large" fundraiser for current presidential candidate and amatuer flat earth society spokesman Ted Cruz last week.
So let’s take a closer look at the company Ted Cruz would like to keep as President of the United States. Robert Murray is a certified climate change denier and has repeatedly rejected the science of climate change and man’s impact. As if it weren't bad enough that he’s made hundreds of millions of dollars as the “King of American Coal” while ignoring its toll on the rest of the country. What makes Murray and his conglomerate Murray Energy even worse is a disregard for the safety and concerns of his own employees and zeal to mine even in our most sensitive conservation lands.
For example -
- Murray violated labor laws and worker safety standards at his mines.
- Murray sued the government to block life-saving clean air protections.
- Murray is trying to mine for coal in our parks.
- Murray keeps calling very real, very dangerous threats to our health, such as acid rain and climate change, hoaxes.
- Murray labeled life-saving proposals to toughen emission standards as criminal fraud.
So while it’s quite surprising that any presidential candidate would want to openly associate with a person like that, Cruz’s fanatical anti-climate science conspiracy theories and disdain for strong worker protection measures line up so well with Murray’s that we truthfully shouldn’t have been shocked that Murray is throwing a fundraiser and Cruz has found a new BFF.
Left unanswered for now, until the FEC reports come out, is whether Robert Murray is making his employees give to Cruz as well and making the fundraiser a mandatory employee outing -- while docking their pay for attendance -- because that’s exactly what he did in 2012 when Mitt Romney was the Republican candidate. Just read the headlines.
- Cleveland.com: “Coal miners lost pay when Mitt Romney visited their mine to promote coal jobs” (more specifically: Murray required his employees to attend political rallies for Mitt Romney without pay.)
- Think Progress: “Coal Workers Say Murray Energy ‘Coerces’ Them To Make GOP Donations: ‘If You Don’t Contribute, Your Job’s At Stake’”
So now that Ted Cruz has decided to cozy up with one of the biggest fossil fuel polluters in the country, the only open question at this point is whether Cruz is looking to become “pen pals” with criminally convicted coal baron Don Blankenship, who is still looking to find “friends with benefits” among Republicans office seekers (Just see the Opensecrets page on: Beneficiaries of Massey Energy Campaign Contributions for more info).