Chamber of Commerce to resume donations to Republicans who voted for Trump's 'Big Lie'

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced on Friday that it would resume donations to Republicans who pushed Donald Trump's "Big Lie" about election fraud by voting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The same night as the fatal January 6th insurrection, 121 House Republicans and 6 Senate Republicans sided with the insurrectionists and voted to overturn the election results.

But a new memo issued by Ashlee Rich Stephenson, the vice president and national political director for the Chamber says donations can resume for Republicans who voted to overturn the will of the voters.

"In the aftermath of the events of January 6, we announced that we would review the totality of actions of members. And take that review into consideration with respect to our PAC giving and political program," Stephenson explained.

"We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification. There is a meaningful difference between a member of Congress who voted no on the question of certifying the votes of certain states and those who engaged and continue to engage in repeated actions that undermine the legitimacy of our elections and institution," Stephenson announced. "For example, casting a vote is different than organizing the rally of January 6th or continuing to push debunked conspiracy theories. We will take into consideration actions such as these and future conduct that erodes our democratic institutions."

Prior to joining the Chamber of Commerce, Stephenson was the polling director for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign. The former New York City mayor was one of the biggest proponents of Trump's conspiracy theories about election fraud.