Koch donors gather for weekend retreat

And the answers they’re getting are frightening.

Aides to billionaire industrialist Charles Koch rejected forays by top Donald Trump campaign donors to meet Friday with the Republican nominee in Colorado Springs, but the developer said Saturday that it was the other way around.

The Koch brothers and their allies lead one of the most sophisticated and skilled political networks in America, yet it is parked on the sidelines of the White House race.

While they will do nothing to prop up Trump, they won’t work to defeat him either. But, by and large, they aren’t. “The test of the pudding is in the eating, and we want to have good eating here”. “So we are in position to make progress in spite of the political situation”.

The Kochs have assembled a political operation some consider to be on par with the Republican National Committee, using a constellation of nonprofit organizations to drive elections and policy fights in recent years.

The Koch network has avoided supporting Donald Trump so far, focusing instead on Republican control of the Senate.

“We are focused on the Senate”, Holden said.

“It was a good discussion”. “We talked about the issues we care about from free speech to criminal justice reform to regulatory reform to ending cronyism and trade”.

A member of the Koch network, Doug Deason, said on Thursday that he emailed Koch about a potential meeting that he thought would be beneficial for Trump. Pence has attended past network seminars.

The network has planned $42 million worth of television and digital ad reservations for those races and has already spent half of that.

“You have a presumptive Republican nominee who’s calling for tax increases”, said Tim Phillips, AFP’s president. “We’re going to continue to deteriorate”.

In some cases, the network may try to link Democratic Senate candidates to Clinton, he added, but there are no plans to go after her exclusively in paid advertising.

The strategy would be similar to what Democrats have been doing for months in linking Trump and his controversial comments to vulnerable GOP senators.

Elected officials at the meeting – all Republicans – include House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Senator Tim Scott of SC, as well as Representatives Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Mike Coffman of Colorado, and Mike Pompeo of Kansas.

It wasn’t much better when Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado; Sen.

The exclusive gathering at the foot of the Rocky Mountains is open to donors who promise to give at least $100,000 each year to the various groups backed by the Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners – a network of education, policy and political entities that aim to promote a smaller, less intrusive government.