“Well, I’m in the Senate. And it appears like there’s corruption to me,” said Franken.
Without naming names, Franken pointed to the case of Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who briefly broke with his party to support holding hearings on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland.
Well-funded outside groups threatened to run ads and support challengers to Moran because of his statements, and he reversed himself to oppose hearings.
“Doesn’t that appear like corruption? To anybody? I see members of the press nodding, involuntarily. It’s amazing,” Franken said.
Franken and other Democrats noted that part of the Supreme Court’s decision assumed Congress would require spending to be disclosed, but bills that have been offered to require disclosure have been blocked by Republicans.
“The reason they did that was they knew that being able to have secret money was to their advantage, and it’s to the disadvantage of the American people, and the American people know it,” Franken said.
“Make no mistake about it. This is about corruption, and not just the appearance of it,” he added.
The Moran example strikes me as not corruption at all, and if it is problematic, the problem is more one of inequality.