ThinkProgress Pushes the Chamber/Foreign Money Story Further

Since ThinkProgress's original story about the Chamber of Commerce taking "foreign" donations into one of its multiple accounts, two things have happened: 1) it's been incorporated into the midterm talking points of national Democrats, and 2) pushback from the Chamber has been aggressive, as the organization has said it takes "not a single cent" from foreign sources for its political activities and has pointed out that that multinational American corporations have been members of the Chamber for years.

Today, ThinkProgress pushes the story further, outlining 84 foreign-based corporations that, ThinkProgress reports, have been donating to the same Chamber account that runs TV ads across the county geared toward affecting the midterm elections.

UPDATE: The Chamber responds, saying once again the story isn't true.

From a post at the Chamber's website by Tom Collamore:

This allegation is equally false and baseless, not to mention tiresome and desperate.



The U.S. Chamber hosts several business councils, whose purpose is to promote bilateral trade and investment between the two countries. They are run as independent organizations and most members of business councils are not also members of the U.S. Chamber.



For those business councils affiliated with us, their monies are considered "restricted funds" and are held for use by those business councils. These councils have been around for decades. They have never engaged in political activity--and they never will.

The Chamber points out that FactCheck.org, the AP, and the New York Times have all questioned ThinkProgress's claim--echoed by Democrats including President Obama--that the Chamber has used foreign money to influence U.S. elections.