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Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to Facebook on Friday to slam the $10 million donation that former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg made to aid Republican Jeb Bush's presidential campaign.
Warren, an icon to voters in the Democratic Party's liberal wing, had this to say about Greenberg's contribution to Right to Rise, a pro-Bush super PAC:
"So let’s get this straight: CEO Hank Greenberg ran AIG as it recklessly gambled on mortgage-backed securities – and left just before his company took a $182 billion bailout from the Bush Administration. Once his Republican friends were out of office, Greenberg sued the Obama Administration because – get this – the bailout wasn’t generous enough for him. And now, Hank Greenberg is giving $10 million of his AIG fortune to try to save Jeb Bush’s dying Presidential campaign.
I’m not sure what’s more disgusting: That Jeb Bush is pinning his Presidential hopes on his brother’s bailout money, or that bailed-out CEOs are trying to buy elections. This is business as usual for Wall Street and Washington insiders, and it stinks."
Greenberg's donation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal,makes him one of the biggest financial players in the 2016 election, and the news emerged as Bush works to gain traction in the early voting states. Despite heavy spending by his super PAC, the former Florida governor polls way behind his rivals, such as developer Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in Iowa, home to the first caucuses in the GOP nomination battle.
Greenberg told the paper he made the donation a few months ago through his company, C.V. Starr. When asked by whether he regretted the decision, he said: "The market would say that."
But Greenberg said Bush could make a comeback: "I just hope that people recognize he's a better person (than) the polling shows." |
