Former Clinton, Obama, and Biden administration official Susan Rice said this week that corporations, universities, law firms, media outlets, and other institutions that she believes aligned themselves with President Donald Trump out of “very narrow,” “very short-term” self-interest will be held accountable if Democrats regain power.
Speaking to Preet Bharara, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who served in the Obama administration, Rice stated, “When it comes to the elites — the corporate interests, the law firms, the universities, the media, I agree with you, Preet, it’s not going to end well for them. For those that decided that they would act in their perceived very narrow self-interest, which I would underscore is very short term self-interest taking a knee to Trump.”
She continued, “I think they’re now starting to realize, ‘Wait a minute, this is not popular. Trump is not popular.’ What he is doing, whether on the economy and affordability or on immigration now is not popular, and that there is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down.”
Rice added, “They’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box. As I talk to leaders in Washington, leaders in our party, leaders in the states, if these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to play by the old rules, say, ‘Oh, never mind. We’ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you violated, all the laws you’ve skirted,’ I think they’ve got another thing coming.”
She went on, “Just like when Trump thought, ‘Okay, I’ll redistrict and the Democrats won’t have the guts to play hardball.’ They’re going to be surprised. Democrats have had a belly full, and we’re not going to play by the old set of rules, when these guys are playing by a very different set of rules. We’re going to play by the law, but we’re not going to violate the law the way they do. We’re not going to be suckers.”
Rice concluded, “Whether you’re a law firm, whether you’re a university, whether you’re a media entity, whether you’re a big corporation, or whether you’re big tech, you need to play a long game, not this short game that has been so detrimental. There will be an accountability agenda. Companies already are starting to hear they better preserve their documents and be ready for subpoenas. If they’ve done something wrong, they’ll be held accountable, and if they haven’t broken the law, good for them. If they’ve done the right things, good for them. That also will be noted and remembered. This is not going to be an instance of forgive and forget. The damage that these people are doing is too severe to the American people and to our national interest.”
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) reacted to the podcast clip, posting, “She is calling for communism in the most gentle way”:
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) also responded to this message, writing: “The Left has unapologetically wielded power against corporate America for decades — it’s why Susan Rice is on Netflix’s Board (the same Netflix begging for approval of a merged).
Their gravy train fell off the tracks. The NGO-DNC-S&P pipeline is drying up. We are over the target.”
Earlier this month, Schmitt noted that Netflix, after years of promoting DEI and other left-leaning causes, was seeking Senate approval for its $100 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. and pointed to the company’s past public advocacy. At the time he highlighted that Netflix added Rice to its board of directors, who served as President Joe Biden’s Domestic Policy Council director working to advance “equity and racial justice,” and previously served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama.
Earlier this month, Schmitt pointed to Netflix placing Susan Rice on its board of directors as he questioned the company’s $100 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. During a Senate hearing, Schmitt cited Netflix’s record of public activism, including its June 20, 2020 video titled “To My White Friends: Guilt, Shame, Embarrassment,” and its “Reform, Solidarity, Action” rally hosted by Stacey Abrams and Soros NGO “Color of Change.” He also stated that 99 percent of Netflix employee political donations go to Democrats and that co-CEO Ted Sarandos is a frequent donor to Democrats.
Schmitt contrasted that record with Sarandos’s testimony that Netflix is not a political organization, writing that when Sarandos asks Congress to “rubber-stamp” the $100 billion acquisition, “We need to make sure it’s legal and is in the interest of the American people,” adding, “I’m not going to sit idly by while Netflix becomes the only shop in town and dictate the television and movie content in our country.”
According to a February 18 report citing RealClearInvestigations senior reporter Paul Sperry, more than 1,000 hours of audio and video compiled by Columbia University in cooperation with the Obama Foundation allegedly show that former President Barack Obama and Susan Rice “broke down and cried” after Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Sperry wrote that they feared their accomplishments were “at risk” of being torn down, though he did not indicate whether the audio would be released publicly or whether transcripts would be made available. A separate interview archive cited by the Daily Mail reported that Obama administration officials did not initially view Trump as a serious candidate for president.
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