Echoing Trump, RNC Warns Candidates, Donors Away From Koch Brothers

US President Donald Trump speaks after his introduction by RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel at a fundraising breakfast in a restaurant in New York, New York on December 2, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (... US President Donald Trump speaks after his introduction by RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel at a fundraising breakfast in a restaurant in New York, New York on December 2, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The RNC, following President Donald Trump’s lead, issued a salvo against the Koch Brothers on Thursday, warning party donors to stay away from the network, according to a Thursday Politico report.

“Some groups who claim to support conservatives forgo their commitment when they decide their business interests are more important than those of the country or Party,” wrote RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a memo. “This is unacceptable.”

She continued to say that the RNC has long been worried about the competing data bank the Koch network built for candidates, information she says can be “weaponized” now that the Koch organization is considering backing Democrats.

“From the beginning, the RNC had concerns about any outside entity building a data operation to compete with ours because we knew they could potentially weaponize that data against Republicans if their business interests conflicted with electing Republicans,” she continues. “Sadly, our concerns were recently proven true.”

She also warns candidates about collaborating with the Kochs, saying that only the RNC’s data bank can be “trusted.”

The memo is only the latest fallout from the Koch donor summit last weekend, where officials voiced their displeasure with the Trump White House on issues like trade and on the President’s divisive rhetoric.

Trump has been on the offensive ever since, tweeting that the brothers are a “total joke” and mocking Charles’ Koch’s characterization of Trump tariffs as “unfair” to the people in the countries they hurt.

Read the memo, obtained by Politico, here:

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