Staff Reports
Kamala Harris appears to be playing the political game with the same finesse as a cat on a hot tin roof, relying heavily on the deep pockets of Big Tech and Wall Street for a leg up in her quest for the White House. News has emerged revealing that Paul Weiss, a law firm cozy with power players like Google and Citigroup, is showering Harris with substantial backing, including more than $1.4 million in donations to the Democratic cause for the 2024 election cycle. To put it mildly, that’s a nice chunk of change—especially when one considers that it comes from a firm that has embedded itself as the crown jewel in the law-and-money marriage market.
Leading the charge is Paul Karp, the firm’s chairman and noted Harris enthusiast. Karp has been making the rounds, tapping into his vast network of lawyers and associates to whip up a fundraising frenzy for the vice president. This isn’t just a casual coffee klatch; Karp is racking up support like a kid collecting Pokémon cards, reaching out to hundreds to corral votes, and perhaps a few favors, all in service of Harris’s political aspirations.
CNBC – 8/9/2024 – discussing Wall Street's influence on a potential @VP Harris Administration
"Wall Street is all in on Kamala Harris…they feel confident…she will have a lighter touch on regulation" pic.twitter.com/dCRvbrjAfo
— CaseStudyQB – #CeaseFireNOW (@CaseStudyQB) August 9, 2024
Further entrenching the connections between Harris and corporate America is Karen Dunn, employed at Paul Weiss and a heavy hitter in the legal arena, who is reportedly on board as part of Harris’s debate prep team. Dunn, who holds the reins for Alphabet in an upcoming antitrust trial, is clearly well-versed in her business of protecting corporate interests. As Harris preps for her political matches, one has to wonder whose interests she’s really defending: Big Tech’s or the average American’s.
A keen observer might see the elephant in the room here—namely, the partnership between the Democratic Party and big law firms that seems orchestrated to benefit both politicians and corporate clients alike. Critics have pointed out the revolving door that allows political operatives and corporate lawyers to shift from one powerful role to another, inevitably leading to a cozy arrangement that often sacrifices public interest for corporate gain. This begs the question of whether America is really getting a fair deal or just a shiny façade hiding self-serving agendas.
Support for Harris is swelling from the ranks of the elite, with over 100 venture capitalists pledging their allegiance. Politically ambitious billionaires held a grand Zoom meeting—sure to be the most exciting thing anyone has done on a Tuesday night this month—to rally support for her campaign. And while polling indicates that she currently leads former President Donald Trump by a slim margin, one can envision a dramatic election season fueled in part by the resources of these corporate giants. There’s plenty of fuel for speculation about what the future holds when a vice president is knee-deep in fundraising calls with the same crowd that has, let’s say, an agenda of its own.
