The Media Research Center began the new year the way it ended the old one — lashing out at George Soros. Tom Olohan wrote in a Jan. 6 post:
The director of an organization funded by leftist billionaire George Soros joined a chorus of voices calling for censorship and more regulation of X after the platform’s owner Elon Musk weighed in on migrant violence in Germany.
The Director of the Soros-funded Global Public Policy Institute, Thorsten Benner, advocated that the European Union and its member states “go after” Musk and crack down on free speech on X. In a Jan. 3 post to his institute’s website, Benner wrote, “If you want to go after Musk then target his business interests: pursue effective regulation of X, organize a consumer boycott against Tesla and pursue massive investments to decrease the European dependence on Starlink.” The Global Public Policy Institute received at least $481,790 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation from 2018-2021.
Benner’s post against Musk was prompted by a Dec. 22 X post and later an op-ed in which Musk endorsed the German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Musk also announced that he will do an X space with AfD German Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel. German legislators have recently attempted to ban the AfD. Now Benner is calling for “effective regulation of X.”
It wasn’t until the final paragraph that Olohan disclosed (by quoting someone else) that AfD is a far-right party, and he never explained why Musk should not be criticized for that embrace of extremism.
Joseph Vazquez served up more Soros guilt-by-association in a Jan. 7 post:
A George Soros-funded group is actually arguing that President Joe Biden’s outrageous abuse of the clemency power should be used more often as an act of “mercy.”
The Brennan Center for Justice posted a piece on X Jan. 5 praising Biden, and captioned it with one of the article’s hot takes that just reeked of Soros’s soft-on-crime approach to criminal justice all over it. “When it comes to ensuring a fair justice system, we believe the presidential clemency power should be used more frequently as a vital mechanism of mercy,” Brennan Center’s ironically-named “Senior Director” of “Justice” Lauren-Brooke Eisen wrote. The nutty piece, written Dec. 12, boasted that Biden’s moves were “a major step in the right direction and a recognition of the excessively punitive nature of our criminal justice system.” Apparently subjecting mass murderers to capital punishment for slaughtering people is also considered “excessive” and “punitive.” Good grief.
This was written just 11 days before Biden would commute the sentences of “at least five child killers and several mass murderers” just before Christmas, according to the New York Post. These included some of “the nation’s most violent murderers — nine of them found too dangerous to live after butchering fellow inmates.” On a separate note, Biden would also later release 11 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison on Jan. 6, two of which were alleged to be the bodyguards for 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Soros funneled $4,950,000 into Brennan’s coffers between 2016 and 2023 alone.
By contrast, Vazquez was completely silent about Donald Trump’s mass pardoning of Capitol rioters, some of whom engaged in violent acts — even though that’s right in line with what he calls “the Soros brand of justice.
Vazquez returned to complain in a Jan. 20 post that a Soros-funded group filed suit over the Musk-led federal slash-and-burn efforts:
A leftist group financed by America’s most notorious billionaire George Soros launched a lawsuit against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by X owner Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy just moments after President Donald Trump took office.
That’s not even enough time for anyone in the Trump administration to pass gas.
The New York Times hailed the leftist efforts at 2 pm under the headline, “Nonprofit Groups Sue Trump Administration Moments After Oath.”
Reporter David Fahrenthold began with “Nonprofit groups filed three lawsuits against President Trump’s administration minutes after he took office on Monday.” Specifically, the leftist groups are railing that DOGE, which was created as a nongovernmental advisory group to slash bureaucracy under Trump, “was violating laws that require federal advisory committees to be open to the public and to include a diversity of viewpoints,” Fahrenthold wrote. The Associated Press reported late January 20 that Ramaswamy was leaving DOGE leadership as he mulls a possible run for Ohio governor.
Vazquez didn’t explain how, exactly, it is “leftist” to insist that DOGE be transparent and consider all viewpoints.
The next day, Vazquez groused further that a non-right-wing group dared to want input into DOGE:
Another piece to the puzzle was added after news broke that the machine run by leftist billionaire George Soros was suing President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
MRC Business discovered that another radical group financed by Soros, Public Citizen, requested January 13 for its co-presidents to be appointed to DOGE, which is being led by X owner Elon Musk. Public Citizen virtue signaled over “concerns about DOGE’s structure and mission. In structure, an advisory committee led by individuals such as Musk and former DOGE leader Vivek Ramaswamy over dubious allegations of conflict of interest.
In short, Public Citizen (founded by leftist Ralph Nader in 1971) sought to steer DOGE away from solely focusing on its founding principle to slash bureaucracy and instead be reengineered to include consideration on “more efficiently regulating corporations” to supposedly protect consumers. They’re for cutting spending — if it’s defense spending and oil subsidies. Soros fueled $6,096,003 collectively into Public Citizen and its Foundation between 2016 and 2023 alone.
As the late President Ronald Reagan warned, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” The Trump transition team apparently didn’t comply, according to January 16 reporting from The New York Times. Public Citizen’s request “has not been accepted so far, the co-president of Public Citizen, Lisa Gilbert, said Thursday,” The Times wrote.
Vazquez didn’t explain why he feels the need to defend all the secrecy around DOGE.