Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a ranking member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), questioned President Joe Biden’s FCC chair nomination Gigi Sohn over her past political contributions during the FCC nomination confirmation hearing Tuesday.
During the hearing, Cruz pressed Sohn about her political contributions over the years, which amounted to $32,000, saying she was the only person he had heard about who donated to political candidates while awaiting nomination confirmation, according to the senator’s remarks.
Sohn was nominated by Biden in October 2021, but a vote was not held, as Senate Commerce Committee (SCC) members scrutinized her advocacy work, political contributions and history as a director at the now-defunct online streaming service Locast.
In 2022 alone, Sohn donated $550 to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), $100 to Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and John Fetterman (D-PA), and $200 to Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO), according to the Washington Examiner. She also donated $2,900 between April and October 2020 to Biden’s presidential campaign.
“The 15 months that your nomination has been pending, you made not one, not two, not three. You made 12 separate political contributions to senators running for office. I’ve been in the Senate for 10 years. I’ve never seen a nominee make contributions to senators while your nomination is pending. I’ve never seen it once,” Cruz said during the hearing. “I had my staff search the records to see if we could find anyone in the Trump administration who had done that. My staff was unable to find that.”
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When asked by Cruz, “Do you believe it was poor judgment to give 12 separate political contributions to Democrat Senators while your nomination was pending?” Sohn responded, “The answer is no.”
When it was revealed that Sohn had made political contributions to senators while still nominated, the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) sent a letter to Bennett, Cortez Masto, Fetterman and Warnock, urging the lawmakers to recuse their vote for Sohn.
“Ms. Sohn’s donations to your campaigns and your acceptance of her contributions during the pendency of her confirmation have irrevocably corrupted the decision-making process and made an objective vote on her confirmation impossible,” AAF President Tom Jones wrote in the letter.
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