HuffPost: ‘The web of relationships could pose a political liability for McCormick as he seeks office ― and an ethical challenge if he is ultimately elected’
Following the latest HuffPost report detailing likely Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick’s deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia, End Citizens United // Let America Vote Communications Director Jonas Edwards-Jenks issued the following statement:
“It’s clear that millionaire hedge fund executive David McCormick has a long history of profiting off investments from nefarious foreign nations and has deep, questionable ties to Saudi Arabia. He owes it to Pennsylvania voters to give them the truth about how much he made from foreign investments and how much Saudi Arabia made off of him.
“Pennsylvanians deserve a strong fighter for the middle-class who will fight for ethics and accountability in government and against the unlimited, undisclosed money undermining our democracy—not an out-of-state Wall Street baron that’s profited off the murderous Saudi royal family. That is clearly Senator Bob Casey and not David McCormick.”
HuffPost: A Saudi-Linked Businessman Is The Key To The GOP’s 2024 Senate Plan
Akbar Shahid Ahmed
7/11/23
Key points:
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As the Senate investigates Saudi Arabia’s business interest in professional golf, one possible future senator is revealing little about his own financial ties to the Saudis: David McCormick, the Republican businessman who is widely expected to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.
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McCormick is the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates, an investment firm that works with sovereign wealth funds like the one maintained by Saudi Arabia. He reportedly pushed for Bridgewater to demonstrate loyalty to the Saudis amid international outrage over Saudi agents’ murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And he is married to a fellow financier, Dina Powell McCormick, a longtime Goldman Sachs executive who is known for her links to Saudi officials and recently took a new job partly focused on sovereign wealth funds.
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The web of relationships could pose a political liability for McCormick as he seeks office ― and an ethical challenge if he is ultimately elected.
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Last month’s announcement of a deal between the U.S.-based PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) to create a new golfing behemoth has sparked new concern about Washington’s already controversial relationship with Riyadh. In addition to scrutiny from the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, the merger is under investigation by the Justice Department.
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Broadly speaking, America’s addiction to Saudi money and its decades of partnership with the kingdom have had appalling consequences, critics of the U.S.-Saudi relationship say. They argue that the U.S.’s chummy approach has enabled Saudi human rights abuses while fueling threats to America’s national security and global stability, from terrorism to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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A handful of lawmakers and activists want to overhaul the status quo. But Saudi influence over U.S. officials makes their work harder.
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A spokesperson for McCormick did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
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As Bridgewater’s CEO from 2017 to 2022 ― he first shared the title then held it single-handedly starting in 2020 ― he mostly worked on winning clients, according to The Financial Times. His work of “building the business” took him “all over the place,” specifically the Middle East, McCormick said on the “Jocko” podcast last month.
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And a 2020 Wall Street Journal piece about the company revealed that some Bridgewater staff were concerned about taking money from Saudi investors and Chinese state-linked clients. McCormick advocated for sustaining ties with the Saudis despite Khashoggi’s 2018 slaughter “because such loyalty would be valued highly,” an employee told the Journal. (A Bridgewater representative retorted that the company “doesn’t know of anything like that being said about any of Bridgewater’s clients.”)
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Beyond Bridgewater, McCormick developed links to Saudi officials through Dina Powell, whom he married in 2019. She’s now known as Dina Powell McCormick.
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Before they were married, Powell worked on Middle East issues for President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2018, with a focus on U.S.-Saudi ties. When Crown Prince Mohammed made a high-profile visit to the U.S. in the spring of 2018, she and McCormick attended an exclusive dinner with the de facto Saudi ruler.
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Simultaneously, she has tried to boost her husband’s political prospects, for instance through a failed bid to win McCormick an endorsement from Trump in Pennsylvania’s 2020 Republican Senate primary and in multiple campaign appearances.
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For McCormick, the pressure to offer real transparency about his Saudi links seems likely to grow. His wife’s extensive ties merit attention, too, in Freeman’s view: He noted that there is a history of powerful interests trying to manipulate politicians through their spouses, including on national security matters.
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The Saudi relationship shows McCormick is unfit for office, according to Maddy McDaniel, a senior communications adviser to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
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“The real David McCormick is a multimillionaire hedge fund executive who sold out Pennsylvanians to enrich himself and his Wall Street friends,” she wrote in an email. “Pennsylvanians deserve someone fighting every day for their bottom line, not for … the billion-dollar bottom line of the Saudi royal family.”
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