A dozen progressive groups wrote a letter to Joe Biden’s team begging them not to select former Google boss and Clinton lackey Eric Schmidt for a prominent tech task force role. According to the letter, “The appointment of Schmidt risks fracturing a Democratic coalition that your campaign and so many others worked so hard to build over the past several months.”
A recent report from Recode titled “Inside the behind-the-scenes fight to convince Joe Biden about Silicon Valley,” outlines the internal struggle between pro and anti-Silicon Valley groups to influence Joe Biden. One key figure that has caused issues internally is Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO and chairman who is reportedly being eyed for a role on Biden’s tech task force.
Breitbart News recently reported that Joe Biden was considering Schmidt for a role in his administration. Breitbart Tech senior reporter Allum Bokhari wrote:
Even though the election result is still disputed by President Donald Trump and the Republicans, Joe Biden is already forming his transition team, which includes many former Silicon Valley employees, including Schmidt.
According to the Financial Times (paywalled), presidential contender Biden has:
hired both Jessica Hertz, former associate general counsel at Facebook, and Cynthia Hogan, former Apple vice-president for government affairs to his transition team. Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, has been a big fundraiser, and is being talked about to lead a new technology industry task force in the White House.
Multiple Big Tech executives joined the Biden transition team just weeks before Silicon Valley censored the New York Post‘s bombshell articles on alleged Biden family corruption.
Schmidt is known for his close ties to the Democrats, as well as his deep involvement with their election campaigns. These have paid off in terms of government roles at both the state and national level.
Now, Recode reports that the possible addition of Schmidt to Biden’s cabinet has drawn criticism from many on the left, writing:
Flashpoints, too, have already emerged that speak to these new battle lines. Activists have grown concerned about a report that Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and a vocal defender of technology giants, was “being talked about” to lead a new tech task force out of the White House. (The report did not say who was doing this talking.)
On Monday, a dozen progressive groups wrote to the Biden transition effort to plead that Schmidt not be appointed to this task force. The letter — shared first with Recode — amounted to a warning shot not just about one particular tech billionaire but about the influence of the tech industry on politics more broadly.
“The appointment of Schmidt risks fracturing a Democratic coalition that your campaign and so many others worked so hard to build over the past several months,” said the letter-writers, which included activist groups like Demand Progress, the Revolving Door Project, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group allied with leading Big Tech critic Elizabeth Warren. “While the appointment of Schmidt may attract praise from certain elites in both Washington and Silicon Valley, it risks alienating an overwhelming majority of the electorate, including within the Democratic base, who want to see the economic power of major corporations reined in.”
Read the full report at Recode here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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