NEW REPORT: Big Pharma Donation Bankrolling Anti-Quarantine Protests; Watchdog Group Calls on PhRMA to Demand Return of Donation

NY Times: “Among those fighting the orders are FreedomWorks…used their social media accounts and text and email lists to spread the word about protests across the country.”

“FreedomWorks helped arrange the events”…“Most of FreedomWorks’s 40 employees are working remotely on the effort”

FLASHBACK–Open Secrets: “Big Pharma bankrolled conservative groups…Among other conservative groups PhRMA gave to last year are…FreedomWorks”

Washington, DC – Today, Patients Over Pharma called on the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to demand that FreedomWorks return the six-figure donation they made to them after news broke that the extreme conservative organization was organizing and fueling the recent anti-quarantine protests.

“Taxpayers are handing hundreds of millions of dollars to drug companies to develop coronavirus vaccines and cures, and it is absurd that these same companies are helping to fund the extreme conservative groups that are actively working to make this public health crisis worse,” said Eli Zupnick, spokesman for Patients Over Pharma. “If PhRMA has any interest at all in patients and public health they will demand that FreedomWorks return the drug companies’ money and stop organizing these coronavirus super-spreader events.” 

From New York Times:

“Among those fighting the orders are FreedomWorks…FreedomWorks…used their social media accounts and text and email lists to spread the word about protests across the country.”

“Most of FreedomWorks’s 40 employees are working remotely on the effort, helping to connect local protesters and set up websites for them. The group is considering paid digital advertising to further increase turnout, and has been conducting weekly tracking polls in swing suburban districts that it says show support for reopening parts of the country. It is sharing the data with advisers on the president’s economic task force and other conservative allies on Capitol Hill.”

“Organizers of recent protests in Oklahoma acknowledged that FreedomWorks helped arrange the events and said they hoped the ‘rolling protests,’ which were intended to keep people in their vehicles, helped Mr. Trump politically.”

“The administration recently formed an advisory group for reopening the economy that included Stephen Moore, the conservative economics commentator. Mr. Moore had been coordinating with FreedomWorks, the Tea Party Patriots and the American Legislative Exchange Council in a coalition called ‘Save Our Country,’ which was formed to push for a quicker easing of restrictions.”