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- In a new Wall Street Journal piece, billionaire Charles Koch expressed regrets over fostering partisanship.
- He told the Journal that his new mission is to work across party lines on issues he sees as key, citing the economy, criminal justice, and immigration as examples.
- The Journal reports that in a new book, Koch writes: “Boy, did we screw up! What a mess!”
- Koch and late brother David helped fund the rise of the Tea Party movement, which pushed the Republican Party significantly to the right over the last decade.
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Billionaire Charles Koch, who has funneled millions into the GOP and conservative movement, reportedly expressed misgivings over how those millions have fueled excessive partisanship.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Douglas Belkin, Koch spoke about his new mission of unification across partisan lines.
He also shared with the Journal some lines from his new book, “Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World,” saying he regrets his partisanship and the divisions it fostered. “Boy, did we screw up! What a mess!” he writes.
Koch and late brother David were major players in the rise and shaping of the Tea Party movement. The brothers founded conservative organization Americans for Prosperity in 2004. In her 2015 book “Dark Money,” New Yorker writer Jane Mayer tracked how they utilized their fortunes to amass political influence and further a libertarian agenda.
“We did not create the Tea Party,” Koch wrote in an email to Belkin. “We shared their concern about unsustainable government spending, and we supported some Tea-Party groups on that issue. But it seems to me the Tea Party was largely unsuccessful long-term, given that we’re coming off a Republican administration with the largest government spending in history.”
Koch did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Per Forbes, Koch is worth $44.9 billion. His fortune comes from Koch Industries, which his father began as a refinery business, making the Kochs into power players in the fossil fuel industry. The brothers repeatedly opposed efforts to fight climate change.
In the 2020 cycle, Koch Industries' PAC — and employees — gave $2.8 million to Republican candidates, according to The Wall Street Journal. They donated $221,000 to Democratic candidates.
In an email to Belkin, Koch congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory, saying that he looks forward to finding how to work with them to "break down the barriers holding people back." He cited the economy, criminal justice, and immigration as examples of key issues.
"At the same time," Koch wrote, "I hope we all use this post-election period to find a better way forward. Because of partisanship, we've come to expect too much of politics and too little of ourselves and one another."