Today, Explained - Death of a Koch brother

Episode Date: August 29, 2019

David Koch was one of the biggest and most influential donors in American politics. Mother Jones' Daniel Schulman explains his complicated legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Joss Fong, senior video producer at Vox, filling in for Sean Ramos' firm. David Koch has died. He was a billionaire businessman, one-time vice presidential nominee, and conservative mega-donor. Well, I'm basically a libertarian, and I'm a conservative on economic matters, and I'm a social liberal. Koch and his older brother Charles ran Koch Industries. The business eventually became the fuel behind one of the highest-spending political action groups in modern American politics, Americans for Prosperity. And Koch was known for being pretty rich, I imagine? At the time of his death, David Koch was worth $50 billion by some estimates.

Daniel Shulman, you wrote a book about the Koch family called Sons of Wichita. What's the most important thing we should know about David Koch, who died last Friday? David played a huge role over the course of four decades in shaping the political climate in the United States, first through the funding of libertarian causes, and then in the 1980s, working more through the Republican Party. Eventually, he and his brother were able to almost form a shadow party within the Republican Party, a network of donors and organizations that in many ways rivaled the Republican Party itself. Do you think it's fair that just because you have billions of dollars, you can influence elections? Well, I contribute to public candidate campaigns, and there is a federal limit on how

much you can contribute to each individual candidate. I obey the law in that regard and feel I'm doing it properly. And can you just list off for us some of these groups that the Koch brothers either founded or funded? They funded the Center for Libertarian Studies, the Foundation for Economic Education, Inquiry, the magazine of the Cato Institute, the Cato Institute, Libertarian Party, the Center to Protect Patient Rights, American Energy Alliance, the American Future Fund, the American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, American Values Action, Americans for Job Security, Americans for Limited Government. Americans for Prosperity was a group that they helped to found. Citizens for a Sound Economy was its predecessor. In terms of public policy, you've got Brookings, Mercatus Center, Pacific Research Institute, the Reason Foundation, the Tax Foundation, the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Washington Legal Foundation.

All these smaller sort of right-leaning think tanks that they've helped to finance over the years and have been dependent on their funds. In addition to politics, Koch gave millions to cancer research, some PBS programs, and a full wing of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. You know, I think he would certainly prefer to be remembered as a philanthropist in the classic sense, and as someone who gave to the arts, to the sciences, to public television, and things of that nature. I remember going into the Hall of Human Origins at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in DC and seeing his name right there on the wall. What were his sort of major philanthropic projects? That was certainly one of them. He had an interest in sort of evolution, and he also had a big interest in dinosaurs. And he financed the dinosaur wing at the Natural History Museum in New York. He gave a large amount of money to rehab what was the New York State Theater at

Lincoln Center and is now the David Koch Theater at Lincoln Center. I think he's spent tens of millions of dollars to rehab the plaza in front of the Metropolitan Museum here in Massachusetts, where I am. He funded the construction of a research center at MIT. But of course, I think he is also going to be remembered for the many millions he pumped into the political system, along with his brother. And in some ways, his legacy is the political climate that we are living through right now. I sort of see the Tea Party as something of a

precursor to the age of Donald Trump. And David Koch, through Americans for Prosperity, very much helped to finance and help to organize the Tea Party movement. I'm Mike Pence. I'm from Indiana. While some are prepared to write the obituary on capitalism and the conservative movement, I believe we are on the verge of a great American awakening. And it will begin here and begin now. Their influence has been in creating another party within the Republican Party. During the Obama era, you really saw them come to the fore in really battling all of

the administration's early initiatives. So climate change, health care, labor measures. These fundamental changes with health care and insurance, the nation's entire financial sector, student loans and the auto industry, these have been radical changes. We will put a handcuff on one of the president's hands. Now we need to have... And this network includes not just, you know, a variety of advocacy groups, but a data operation, basically all the trappings of a modern political party. And it was David who was the chairman of Americans for Prosperity, and he would appear at their events and sort of became synonymous with the Tea Party movement. What a day we've had so far, and what a tremendous lineup of speakers. Thank you so much for attending our ninth annual Defending the American Dream Summit.

And then, did they play a role in the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case? The U.S. Supreme Court today overturned laws on the books for nearly a century and ruled that corporations can spend freely now on political campaigns. The result of the Citizens United Supreme Court battle that the brothers had helped fund. Certainly they funded some of the organizations that were involved in litigating that. So yeah, they played, they did play some role. And they, you know, in the past have been able to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, basically rivaling the fundraising capacity of the Republican National Committee itself. There's nothing more important

than rallying Americans around a pro-liberty agenda going into next year. Thanks to your passion and commitment to our country, people's faith in the American dream, something that seems so distant of so many Americans today, is once again within our reach. Give yourself a big round of applause for all you've accomplished and for the victory sure to come. Charles and David Koch may not be running for president but they are certainly poised to decide who will. The billionaire brothers are raising their collective profile this year as political kingmakers, courting presidential hopefuls and making plans to spend nearly a billion dollars on the 2016 election, outstripping both major political parties.

And so who did the Koch brothers back in the 2016 election? The Kochs were not big fans of Donald Trump. And in fact, internally within their donor network, they debated whether they should run ads opposing him and playing a role in the primary. Ultimately, they backed off doing that. And I don't think they like Trump's style. But when Trump came into office and was not really prepared to come into office, the Trump administration was seeking to fill the bureaucracy with all these positions. And the Kochs really had a number of names that they could hand over. And so many

Koch-connected officials ended up going into the Trump administration. You know, Mike Pence, for instance. Would you join me in thanking Donald Trump, Melania, and his entire family for the sacrifices that they are making to make America great again. Pence was a frequent guest at the Koch's donor summits and at events run by Americans for prosperity. Mike Pompeo is also another example of someone who has benefited from the Koch network. Talked about radical Islam. We don't have to go far. This evil is all around us. He was a congressman from Wichita, Kansas,

and has very much been connected to the Kochs and their activities over the years. There's also the former White House legislative affairs director, Mark Short, the former EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt. I believe the ability to measure with precision the degree of human activity's impact on the climate is subject to more debate. And now White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The Democrat Party is infested with what we call Trump derangement syndrome. They still cannot accept. Those are just among a few of the more noteworthy names that have ties to the Kochs in various ways. Charles Koch said recently that in the last five years, he's accomplished more than in the previous 45 years. And if you look at the regulatory rollbacks under the Trump administration, this is what they've been going after for years and years and years. after the break how coke industries going to be about feet.

A little foot confession here. I, most of the summer, don't wear socks. The warmer months, I just don't have the smelliest feet and I can pull it off. And this isn't just me thinking I don't have smelly feet. I've asked other people to smell my shoes when I'm not wearing them. Nine out of ten people believe that I don't have smelly feet. But when the winter months come around, I do wear socks. And sadly, depending where you live right now, the winter months are not far. And Bombas, they make socks. Some say the most comfortable socks in the history of feet. I'm told they're made from super soft natural cotton, and every pair comes with arch support,

a seamless toe, and a cushioned footbed that's comfy, but not too thick. They don't lay it on too thick. They're subtle. They got lots of colors though, lots of patterns, lots of lengths and styles. And for every Bombas purchase you make, Bombas donates a pair of socks to someone in need. Check them out at bombas.com slash explain today and get 20% off your first purchase. That is B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash explained for 20% off. Daniel Shulman, you mentioned that David Koch was worth about $50 billion.

So basically one of the richest men in the world. Where did all his money come from? His money is all tied up with Koch Industries, which is the second largest private corporation in America. Koch Industries is a massive empire that touches everyday lives in ways you may not even know. Really, you can't go through a single day without encountering one of their products. Meet Jane as she interacts with Coke products. This is really interesting. Jane wakes up, she's had a

good night's sleep in her mattress made of memory foam which is a Coke product from their company Invista. And in fact I'm sure in the rooms that we are all in right now whether it's the drywall that was used to construct your home. The hardwood floors there, Georgia Pacific wood, another Coke brand. Or your Stainmaster carpet. They use Antron fibers, which is another Coke product. Or maybe you're wearing some sort of spandex product. All of this stuff is produced by Coke Industries, and it goes on from there.

They also have interests in electronics companies, so, you know, some of the components in your iPhone. And not to get too personal, I didn't mention toilet paper, which, by the way, in most cases, will come from a Koch-produced company. There's a lot of Koch stuff in our lives. And, of course, they're still involved in the petrochemical industry that's been their bread and butter for years. Why do you think Koch Industries isn't better known by the general public, given the size and reach of what they do?

I honestly think they've always worked in these sort of anonymous areas. It's not like Koch Industries had gas stations, but they would transport gas, whether it was through trucks or through pipes. And they never saw much benefit in publicizing what they were doing. In fact, I think they saw more of an advantage of keeping what they were doing secret. And let's talk a little bit about David Koch's family background. He was born into a very wealthy family based in Wichita, Kansas. It's interesting, there are actually four Koch brothers, but you know, you often hear, when you hear Koch brothers, that often refers to his older brother, Charles,

and himself. The eldest Koch brother never got involved in business or politics. His name is Frederick, and his interests have mainly been in the arts and rehabbing historic homes and things of that nature. David also has a fraternal twin, Bill, who ended up having a very epic falling out with his brothers. And in the Koch family, it was a battle between alpha males. Everything came back to competition. There's old footage of David and Bill Koch settling their disputes with boxing gloves. This is what their dad had them do, kind of boxing at maybe five or six. Wow.

And that's how things got worked out in that family. But all of this really goes back to their dad, Fred Koch. The life lessons I learned from my father are the foundation upon which I live every day. A kind of tough-as-nails Midwestern industrialist. A pioneer, an innovator, and a hard worker, my father actually started the company that now bears his name of Koch Industries. Fred Koch formed a small oil engineering company. It was called Winkler Koch. And basically, they were selling a new process for refining oil that was able to get more gasoline than the models that were used during that time.

In fact, Fred Koch, the patriarch, ended up selling this oil refining technology to the Soviets, and it ended up helping to empower the Soviet Union. And, you know, after this had happened, Fred was sort of horrified by what he had done. And he became a very staunch anti-communist. And he was one of the founders of the John Birch Society, literally in the room when this organization was created. And their politics really flow from their father. And so when Fred passes away, what happens to the family business? So Fred Koch passed away in 1967.

And Charles had recently come back to work for the family business running what was then a medium-sized but still fairly large oil and cattle ranching concern. David and Bill later joined the company, but it was really Charles's vision that turned it into what it is today. And did David Koch ever run for political office? He ran for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980 at the urging of his brother Charles. And the main qualification for his political run at that time was the size of his bank account, because he could pour unlimited funds into that campaign. That campaign ended up being something of a high watermark for the libertarians because they got about 1% of the popular vote, which was

huge for them at the time. It really put the libertarians on the map. But during a year in which its agenda was fairly extreme, calling for the end of Medicaid and Social Security and the shuttering of agencies, including the CIA, FBI, and many others. This was sort of a role that David has always played in what were essentially Charles's political projects. He would always end up being the public face of these projects. And shortly after this campaign, you see the Kochs sort of sidle up much more so to the Republicans. And in the course of your reporting and writing your book about this family, did you ever get to meet David Koch? I met David Koch on one occasion.

It was on the floor of the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa. And I was sort of able to corner him at the time I was trying to talk to him because I was hoping to interview him for my book. You know, I remember him saying something to me along the lines of, well, I hope you do a good job. And the Kochs definitely did not want to participate in this project. But I think one of the things that shaped David's life was these

two near-death brushes that he had in the early 90s. One in February 1991, he was on a flight that basically crashed into another plane upon landing. And about a quarter of the people on this flight died, and David survived. The next year, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. And I think these were the two formative experiences of his life, and I think he wanted to leave behind a big legacy. David and Charles Koch, it sounds like they've really reshaped American politics, especially the Republican Party, and more. How would you sum up David Koch's legacy? It's very much in the same vein as some of the robber barons of the Gilded Age in some ways, who gave a tremendous amount to charities to burnish some of the rough edges of their lives

and their role, you know, certainly for David in financing things like climate change skepticism. Both he and Charles poured a lot of money into tens of millions of dollars into a network of think tanks and other organizations sowing doubt about climate change. And this is always something that when I was reporting on the Kochs really vexed me because these are both scientific-minded guys. They should know better. Of course, they were also involved in the petrochemical industry. So it's impossible not to see that there might've been some sort of self-interest in this. It's fascinating.

So they were interested in human origins, interested in paleontology, archaeology. Maybe at some level they did know that they were wrong about climate change. There was an interesting interview with Bill Gates in Rolling Stone a few years ago where he recalled sitting next to Charles Koch at a dinner party and they talked about climate change. And I think at this dinner party, Charles actually acknowledged like, yeah, I believe that climate change exists, but I'm not sure that

the solutions that are being proposed would do anything to mitigate it. But that said, the groups that they were financing didn't take a nuanced view of climate change, really. I mean, they were spreading doubts about the very foundations of climate science. Daniel Schulman is the author of Sons of Wichita, How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty. I'm Joss Fong, video producer at Vox, filling in for Sean Rama's firm while he's on vacation. This is Today Explained.