Why The Billionaire Koch Brothers May Not Support Any GOP Candidate

Multi-billionaire industrialists, the Koch Brothers, said last month they will not use their political donations to derail Republican front-runner and fellow billionaire Donald Trump from receiving the Republican Party’s nomination to run for president.

And in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC News, Charles Koch explained the reasoning for the brothers not getting involved in the Republican primaries.

Koch called Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz “terrible role-models.”

“We said. ‘Here are the issues. You’ve got to be like Ronald Reagan and compete in making the country better rather than tearing down your opponents,'” Charles Koch told ABC’s Jonathan Karl. “And right off the bat they didn’t do it, more of these personal attacks pitting one person against the other. That’s the message you’re sending to the country. That’s the way you should…you’re role models. And you’re terrible role models, so I don’t know how we can support them.”

Trump and Cruz have been at each other’s throats, most notably over the infamous wives’ tweets.

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“We haven’t put a penny in any of these campaigns pro, or con,” Koch emphatically stated, referencing reports his corporation has invested in presidential candidates.

In response to Trump’s promise to put a ban on Muslims coming into the country, Koch said, “Well, obviously that’s antithetical to our approach but what was worse was have them all register, that’s reminiscent of Nazi Germany. I mean that’s monstrous, as I said at the time.”

Equally disturbing to Koch was Cruz’s reference to promise to carpet bomb in the Middle East.

Koch told ABC News Bill Clinton was a better president than George W. Bush in many respects. Under Bush, the billionaire stated plainly, “As far as the growth of government, the increase in spending, on restrictive regulations, it was 2.5 times what it was under Clinton.”

When asked by Karl if Hillary Clinton could be a better president than a Republican one this year, Koch said, “It’s possible.”

Can Koch see himself supporting Clinton for president? “We would have to believe her actions would be quite different than her rhetoric. Let me put it that way,” Koch said.

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