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FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Backtracks on $1B Political Donation, Calls It 'Dumb Quote'
The head of crypto exchange FTX is a political mega-donor and had earlier said he might donate up to $1 billion in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:59 a.m. Published Oct 14, 2022, 12:29 p.m.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the head of crypto exchange FTX, in an interview with Politico's Morning Money backtracked on his remarks that he would donate up to $1 billion in the next U.S. presidential election.
Earlier this year, the billionaire had said that he would spend “north of $100 million” on future political campaigns. In the Politico interview, Bankman-Fried took back the statement, calling it a "dumb quote."
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Bankman-Fried has spent almost $40 million on political action committees and campaigns this year, the bulk of it going to the Democratic party and its candidates. He was one of the single largest donors behind Joe Biden's successful 2020 presidential campaign.
“At some point, when you've given your message to voters, there's just not a whole lot more you can do,” Bankman-Fried said. “You can spend more time on it, and more messaging, more money, more anything else, [but] you're not accomplishing anything more.”
Read more: FTX's Bankman-Fried Is Already a Political Mega-Donor. He's Doubling Down
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