One of the heirs to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News media empire spent $20 million in an effort to defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election while funneling another $100 million through a nonprofit to support leftist political groups, a report said.
James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, have been major contributors to the Democrat Party and leftist causes, according to June 8 report by CNBC, which discovered the $100 million contribution while reviewing the 2019 tax return documents of Quadrivium, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit controlled by the couple.
It was widely known that Murdoch's children backed Joe Biden's candidacy in 2020, but the $100 million funneled through Quadrivium for Democrats and other PACs was not well publicized, CNBC noted.
While the 90-year-old Rupert Murdoch and his brother Lachlan are considered staunch Republicans, James Murdoch has made it known to associates that, upon his father’s passing, he and his more liberal sisters will control the family trust and Fox News.
The Financial Times reported earlier this year that upon gaining control, James and his sisters do not plan on selling Fox News, but will reshape it into an establishment media outlet.
More than $25 million of James and Kathryn Murdoch’s funding in 2019 went toward grants, including for several political causes, such as fighting climate change and helping voter turnout.
Get-out-the-vote campaigns in Georgia — where Republicans lost two Senate runoffs Jan. 5 — also received donations from the couple.
James also signed onto a public statement opposing "any discriminatory legislation or measures that restrict or prevent any eligible voter from having an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot."
In what was viewed as a not-so-veiled reference to Fox News, James attacked conservative media that was sympathetic to then-President Trump's challenge of the 2020 election.
"The damage is profound," James told the Financial Times after the Jan. 6 protest at the Capitol. "The sacking of the Capitol is proof positive that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very much so. Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years."
Among the sums and beneficiaries cited in the CNBC report:
• $11 million to the Environmental Defense Fund, with which Kathryn Murdoch has been a trustee for years.
• $2.5 million for Democracy Works Inc., a nonprofit to help register people to vote.
• $2 million for Represent.Us, a nonprofit group that includes Hollywood elites J.J. Abrams, Michael Douglas, and Jennifer Lawrence, and works to "pass powerful state and local laws that fix our broken elections and stop political bribery."
• $1 million for The Brennan Center for Justice.
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