whatley, michael
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SWAMP THING
luke lindberg ~ USAID
fmrly cea consumer energy alliance BS
democ docket 7 25 voter suppress
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AN 10 26
Trump's handpicked Republican in a must-win North Carolina's Senate race is facing an embarrassing controversy after a local GOP organization tried to photoshop a Confederate flag off one of their photos from a campaign event.
Michael Whatley, who is the former Republican National Committee chairman, showed up at the Henderson County Republican Party headquarters on October 12, where photos shared by the local party showed the flag prominently displayed in the room.
According to The Daily Beast, one of the photos captured a woman smiling while holding a sign for Whatley,y which read, "Protect Our Families." The county GOP shared the photo on Facebook with the caption "Proud Supporter."
However, they later deleted the post and shared a photoshopped version without the Confederate flag.
The attempt to clean up the image only brought more attention to it, as other photographs and video from the gathering show Whatley walking past the flag and smiling as he moved through the room.
It's unclear how much Whatley or his team was involved, and the Henderson County GOP removed the image from its Facebook page.
The Anti-Defamation League notes that the Confederate flag is embraced by white supremacists, although some supporters of it argue that it is a symbol of Southern heritage. The Confederacy fought the Union in part to preserve slavery as a practice.
The latest embarrassment comes as Whatley is among many MAGA candidates fighting for power in a very tough election campaign against former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
An Elon University poll released earlier this week has the Democrat leading Whatley 52% to 39% among likely voters. And with a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points for likely voters, that spells bad news for the Trump pick.
Whatley was also caught in a different controversy last month when a registered sex offender delivered an opening prayer at a separate campaign gathering in New Bern. His campaign denied organizing the event or inviting the guests, but the Daily Beast reported that promotional materials and Whatley's own remarks seemed to contradict that explanation.
Trump campaigned for Whatley this week but at one moment seemingly miscommunicated his support.
"It's crazy, you're going to send him to Washington to represent you," Trump told supporters, referring to Cooper.
Now, the altered photo has created another attack line for Democrats, with Whatley already lagging behind in the polls.
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an 4 26
Trump needs to retain the North Carolina Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis — but according to a prominent local columnist, Trump’s Iran war stance is getting in the way of that goal.
“Recent polling suggests that slim majorities of North Carolina voters oppose military involvement in Iran, while even larger majorities oppose putting troops on the ground in Iran,” wrote Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten for The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
Yet despite the unpopularity of Trump’s Iran war positions in North Carolina, Masten wrote that the Republican Senate candidate in that state, Michael Whatley, has staunchly backed it, even describing North Carolina as “the tip of the spear” in the conflict against Iran. He even added that Americans are “absolutely with” Trump and “most of North Carolina” supports Trump’s Iran war.
“We support this mission, and we need to make sure we see it through,” Whatley said in one speech quoted by Masten.
But the journalist said Trump is not only hurting Whatley on the topic of the war.
“Support for the conflict could also hurt Whatley on another issue that has been a thorn in the side of Republicans: the economy,” Masten wrote. “Gas prices have skyrocketed, and gas prices are Americans’ top concern in the war, polls show. Our involvement in Iran could benefit Whatley, however — a recent column in The Fayetteville Observer pointed out that Whatley’s investment portfolio, a large chunk of which is invested in oil and gas stocks, has seen a windfall since the launch of Operation Epic Fury in Iran.”
After reviewing how much better Whatley’s Democratic opponent, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, is positioned to address issues like Iran, gas prices and affordability, Masten concluded that Trump’s recent Iran ceasefire may not be enough to solve Whatley’s political troubles.
“It’s unclear what will happen when it ends, which could keep Whatley in an uncomfortable position of defending and campaigning on an issue that voters don’t support,” Masten wrote. “It’s a position Whatley is probably used to by now, but if he hopes to close in on Cooper’s comfortable lead, he ought to readjust.”
A poll by Healthier United in March found that Cooper is beating Whatley in current polls by a margin of 50 percent to 32 percent. Meanwhile Whatley also faced controversy because of his past support for Mark Robinson, the former Lieutenant Governor who won the 2024 Republican gubernatorial nomination despite a record of racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic remarks.
“His support for Robinson was steadfast even as Robinson said vile things about women, attacked victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and said, ‘We are called to be led by men, not women,’” state Rep. Phil Rubin (D-Wake) said in August about Whatley’s support for Robinson. “This election is a clear choice between results and resentment, between competence and culture wars.”
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Marc Morano
Weekly update ⋅ October 10, 2025
Ex-FBI Asst. Director Reveals Antifa's REAL Origin Story + Christina Bobb on James Comey ...
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Ex-FBI Asst. Director Reveals Antifa's REAL Origin Story + Christina Bobb on James Comey Felonies & Marc Morano on CA Wildfire Arson Arrest – Ask ...
Officials Reveal REAL Cause Of California's Palisades Fires - The First TV
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Democrats keep getting caught in bad situations. Jesse Kelly and Marc Morano discuss.
Watch: "Just the News, No Noise" with Michael Whatley and Bassem Youssef
Watch: "Just the News, No Noise" with Michael Whatley and Bassem Youssef | Just The News
Tonight's featured guest will be Michael Whatley, former Chairman, Republican National Committee, current candidate for GOP nomination for US Senate from North Carolina.
Also appearing will be Bassem Youssef, FBI whistleblower; Chris Piehota, Retired FBI Executive Assistant Director, Author of “Wanted: The FBI I Once Knew;” Dr. Peter McCullough, Cardiologist and Chief Scientific Officer, The Wellness Company (TWC.Health/JustNews, promocode JustNews save 10% plus free shipping) Co-Author, "Vaccines: Mythology, Ideology, and Reality;" and Marc Morano, Publisher, ClimateDepot.com.
The show runs weekdays at 6 p.m. EST and may be live-streamed on the Real America's Voice Network.
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... Marc Morano, Publisher, ClimateDepot.com. The show runs weekdays at 6 p.m. EST and may be live-streamed on the Real America's Voice Network ...
James Comey Pleads NOT GUILTY, SCOTUS Terror Attack HALTED & California ... - The First TV
The First TV
Jesse shows examples and gets reaction from Marc Morano. I'm Right with Jesse Kelly on The First TV Pure Talk: Go to https://www.puretalk.com ...
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aha a 3 fer?
punish CA for not voting for him, gov and AG fight/sue call him out, beat up on immigrants dem gt replace theory BS; // dems did not want to help NC hurricane?
an 1 25
'Not good': Trump proposes 'getting rid of' FEMA and conditioning California aid on voter ID
Trump intensified his attacks on the Federal Emergency Management Agency during a visit to Hurricane Helene-damaged parts of North Carolina on Friday, announcing he is planning on reforming or “getting rid of FEMA,” and proposed an unprecedented move to condition disaster relief on the passage of a voter ID law by California’s lawmakers, “as a start.” Trump’s trip, which will include travel to California later Friday, appears designed to target the emergency management agency, which he has been criticizing for months.
In what appeared to be scripted remarks, Trump later elaborated that he would “sign an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA. I think frankly, FEMA’s not good. I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to go and, uh, whether it’s a Democrat or Republican governor, you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time.”
“Calling FEMA and then FEMA gets here and they don’t know the area,” Trump claimed. “They’ve never been to the area and they want to give you rules that you’ve never heard about, they wanna bring people that aren’t as good as the people you already have,” he alleged.
“FEMA turned out to be a a disaster. And you could go back a long way, you could go back to Louisiana, you could go back to some of the things that took place in Texas. And it turns out to be the state that ends up doing the work. It just complicates it. I think we’re gonna recommend that FEMA go away. And we pay directly and we pay a percentage to the state, but the state should fix it.”
RELATED: Is Trump Using Project 2025 to Eliminate FEMA?
In his wide-ranging remarks, President Trump also claimed that “rather than going through FEMA,” disaster relief aid to California and North Carolina “will go through us,” meaning, through his administration. FEMA is a federal government agency under the wide umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The president nominates the HHS Secretary, a cabinet level official, and the FEMA administrator.
And Trump appeared to say that he will assign Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley to manage financial aid to North Carolina, removing FEMA from the state.
“Trump also said FEMA would not be involved in further relief efforts and instead suggested that Whatley, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein (D), and a trio of Republican House members would be working with the White House directly because the agency ‘hasn’t done the job,'” The Independent reported.
“I wanna see two things in Los Angeles,” Trump also told reporters late Friday morning, “voter ID so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state. Those are the two things. After that, I will be the greatest president that California ever has ever seen.”
“I want the water to come down and come down to Los Angeles and also go out to all the farm land that’s barren and dry,” Trump claimed. This week the President appeared to suggest that water runs only north to south.
READ MORE: Danish MP Follows Profane Message to Trump With Warning to Greenlanders on US Civil Rights
“So, I want two things,” Trump repeated, “I want voter ID for the people of California. They all want it. Right now you have no, you don’t have voter ID. People want to have to voter identification. You wanna have proof of citizenship. Ideally, you have one-day voting, but I just want voter ID to start, and I want the water to be released, and they’re gonna get a lot of help from the U.S.”
October 1, 2024, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria
MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): You've said many times that one of your main priorities is ensuring that we have a fair election this November. You mentioned Arizona. What's going on there in Arizona? Early voting begins on October 9th. The ballots in Maricopa County, we want to get your take on whether or not you've got confidence there in Arizona because apparently The Gateway Pundit reported that the GOP chairwoman provided an update to allegations that there's not going to be a fair election there.
MICHAEL WHATLEY (REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN): Well, there is going to be a fair election and we're working very, very hard with the Arizona GOP. I actually had dinner with the chairwoman last night and we're focusing very hard on making sure that we have the right rules of the road in place before the voting starts. We filed numerous lawsuits and we've been engaged in a lot of discussions with Maricopa and with the state of Arizona. We are going to have observers and lawyers who are going to be in the room whenever a vote is counted, whenever a vote is cast, to make sure that we're going to be on top of this. We want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat.
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9 24
Michael Whatley (born 1968 or 1969)[1] is an American politician and lawyer who has served as chair of the Republican National Committee since March 2024. Before this, he was chair of the North Carolina Republican Party for five years, the last year of which he also served as the RNC's general counsel.
Early life
Whatley is from Watauga County, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a bachelor's degree in history and from Wake Forest University with a master's degree in religion, dissertation on: "Cardinal Richelieu: Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.” In 1997, he earned a Juris Doctor degree and a master's degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame.[2]^
U.S. SenatorWhatley began working in Republican Party politics when he volunteered on the 1984 reelection campaign of Jesse Helms while he was a sophomore at Watauga High School.[3]^
Career
In 2000, Whatley was a member of George W. Bush's team pursuing the Florida recount. During Bush's presidency, Whatley served in the United States Department of Energy as deputy assistant secretary.[4] In 2004, he became chief of staff for U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole, replacing Frank Hill.[4][5] In 2007, Whatley became a partner at lobbying firm HBW Resources, and in 2008 he became executive vice president for the Consumer Energy Alliance; he held the position until 2019.[6][7] In 2016, Whatley helped Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump campaign and organize rallies in North Carolina.[6]
In June 2019, the North Carolina Republican Party selected Whatley to succeed Robin Hayes as their chair.[8][9] Whatley was closely involved in President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, including participating in the December 2020 phone call on which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes he needed to win the state.[10]^
Following the United States Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, Whatley refused to blame Trump, saying that only those who participated in the riots bear responsibility.[11][12] In February 2021, Whatley said, "We certainly saw evidence of voting irregularities, of election counting irregularities in a number of places around the country", and that the reason Trump won North Carolina was his state party's vigilance against Democrats' attempts to cheat.[13] Also in February 2021, the state party voted unanimously to censure Senator Richard Burr for voting to convict President Trump during his second impeachment.[14]^
The Republican National Committee appointed Whatley as its general counsel in February 2023.[15] In February 2024, Donald Trump endorsed Whatley to replace Ronna McDaniel as chair of the RNC.[16] In March 2024, Whatley was elected as the new chair of the RNC, along with Lara Trump as his co-chair.[17][18] Per the North Carolina party's 2022 plan of organization, its vice chair (Susan Mills) served as state chair until a successor was elected.[19][20]^
References
- ^ Coleman, Dashiell (June 14, 2019). "Gastonia's Whatley says GOP will focus on 2020". Gaston Gazette. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
- ^ Poteat, Bill. "Gastonia's GOP State Chairman Michael Whatley excited as party builds toward 2022 election". Gaston Gazette.
- ^ Moss, Bill (July 27, 2019). "Henderson County Four Seasons Politics: Republican chair declares North Carolina key to Trump re-election – Hendersonville Lightning". Hendersonville Lightning. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Jump up to:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Whatley#cite_ref-hbn33_4-1) Washington lawyer Dole's chief of staff. The News and Observer. January 15, 2004. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
- ^ Coleman, Dashiell (June 7, 2019). "Gaston Republican in running for state GOP role". Gaston Gazette. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Jump up to:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Whatley#cite_ref-igf565_6-1) Morrill, Jim; Pogarcic, Anna (June 10, 2019). NC's new GOP chair Whatley calls for a 'reset'. The Charlotte Observer. p.2. Retrieved August 9, 2024.
- ^ Cama, Timothy (March 8, 2024). "Republicans tap former oil lobbyist for national chair". E&E News. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ "North Carolina Republicans pick Whatley as state party head". AP News. June 9, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Morrill, Jim; Pogarcic, Anna (June 9, 2019). "Michael Whatley elected new chair of NC Republican Party, calls for a 'reset'". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Roth, Zachary (February 13, 2024). "Trump's pick for RNC chief worked with top election denier's group". Colorado Newsline. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Greenwood, Max (February 16, 2021). "North Carolina GOP chair: Fault lies with rioters, not Trump". The Hill. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Kaczynski, Andrew; Steck, Em (February 9, 2024). "Likely frontrunner for RNC chair parroted Trump's election lies after 2020 and has suggested Jan 6. rioters weren't 'Republican voters'". Politics. CNN. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ Joseph, Cameron (May 19, 2021). "Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorists Are Taking Over State Republican Parties". Vice. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ "North Carolina GOP censures Sen. Burr for impeachment vote". NBC News. Raleigh, North Carolina. February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
- ^ "Whatley tapped for national RNC leadership role". Carolina Journal -. February 28, 2023.
- ^ Ibssa, Lalee (February 12, 2024). "Trump endorses Michael Whatley as RNC chair, Lara Trump as co-chair". ABC News. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ Samuels, Brett (March 8, 2024). "RNC elects Michael Whatley, Lara Trump as new leaders". The Hill. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ "Trump's grip on RNC tightens as Michael Whatley and Lara Trump become new leaders". The Independent. March 8, 2024. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
- ^ "2022 Plan of Organization" (PDF). North Carolina Republican Party. March 5, 2023. p. 19. Retrieved March 10, 2024.
- ^ "2023 North Carolina Republican Party State Convention". Polk County Republican Party, North Carolina. June 14, 2023. Retrieved March 10, 2024. Susan Mills will continue to serve as Vice Chair.
| Party political offices | Party political offices | Party political offices |
|---|---|---|
Preceded by Aubrey Woodard Acting | Chair of the North Carolina Republican Party 2019–2024 | Succeeded by Susan Mills Acting |
Preceded by | Chair of the Republican National Committee 2024–present | Incumbent |
{nl}Republican Party|
{nl}State chairs of the Republican Party|
- 1960s births
- 21st-century American lawyers
- Living people
- North Carolina Republicans
- Notre Dame Law School alumni
- People from Gastonia, North Carolina
- People from Watauga County, North Carolina
- Political chiefs of staff
- Republican National Committee chairs
- State political party chairs of North Carolina
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte alumni
- Wake Forest University alumni
===
the hill
North Carolina Republican Party Chair Michael Whatleyhas been thrust into the national spotlight after he was voted to be the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) new chair following a strong push by former President Trump to run for the spot.
Whatley is a Trump ally who has echoed the former president’s rhetoric about “election integrity” in the wake of the 2020 election, which Trump has falsely claimed was fraudulent and stolen.
Whatley, who was elected RNC chair on March 8, will face different challenges in overseeing the party. He’ll have to grapple with the organization’s fundraising struggles, ensure various state party chairs are happy, make sure the party’s ground and data operations are humming for the general election, and appease Trump, whose relationship with Chair Ronna McDaniel soured over the past year.
“I think we’d be hard pressed to see the committee not ratify the person [Trump] wants,” said Doug Heye, a former RNC spokesperson who has known Whatley for 20 years before the vote. “There may be some work that has to be done on that … It may not be a unanimous vote. But it seems pretty clear that he’ll be there.”
A lengthy GOP resume
Whatley has spent decades in GOP politics, having served in the George W. Bush administration, as a top aide to former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) and on the Trump-Pence transition team.
He has served as chair of the North Carolina GOP since 2019, and he has served as general counsel of the RNC since last year. Taken together, those two positions give him a familiarity with the inner workings of the committee and with many of the 168 members.
During Whatley’s time as North Carolina GOP chair, Republicans flipped the state Supreme Court and solidified supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature. Republicans were unable to win back the governor’s mansion in 2020.
Whatley’s critics have pointed to his previous work in the Bush administration to paint him as the kind of Beltway insider Trump frequently rails against. And his win in last year’s North Carolina GOP elections prompted a legal challenge from his opponent, who alleged some ballots were improperly cast. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.
A focus on ‘election integrity’
Much of the focus around Whatley since his name first emerged as a possible successor to McDaniel has been on his efforts on “election integrity,” an issue the RNC zeroed in on as Trump pushed the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
“Michael has been with me from the beginning, has done a great job in his home state of North Carolina, and is committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our election so it can’t be stolen,” Trump said in a statement endorsing Whatley.
In a 2021 appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference panel on “protecting elections,” Whatley spoke at length about his efforts to recruit hundreds of attorneys and volunteer poll watchers in North Carolina.
He echoed some of Trump’s rhetoric about mail-in voting, saying absentee balloting can be done effectively when paired with voter ID requirements and pushing back on mass mailing ballots to residents.
Whatley noted roughly 75 percent of the state GOP’s annual operating budget was dedicated to legal costs, something he suggested the party as a whole should mirror.
“This is going to have to be part of the Republican establishment going forward,” he said. “This is going to be lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit.”
Whatley leaned into the issue of election integrity after he was voted the new RNC chair.
“If our voters don’t have confidence that our elections are safe and secure, nothing else matters. We will work relentlessly in every state to ensure that it is easy to vote and hard to cheat,” he said.
He noted that the RNC “will be focused like a laser on getting out the vote and protecting the ballot.”
Trump would likely exert pressure on the RNC to pursue legal challenges if November’s election doesn’t go his way, just as he did in 2020. And while Whatley’s rhetoric around the legitimacy of elections will likely be closely watched, Heye argued it would be impractical to think Trump would back someone who does not share his views.
“It’s Donald Trump’s RNC. Do we expect he’d back somebody who’s disagreeing with him publicly? No,” Heye said. “The reality is the party chair is going to be a reflection of the nominee.”
Trump putting his stamp on RNC
Whatley’s election as chair is one piece of a broader effort by Trump to shape the RNC to his liking ahead of the upcoming general election cycle.
In addition to endorsing Whatley, Trump backed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, for RNC co-chair, winning her election alongside Whatley on March 8. He also announced Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, would move to the RNC in what would effectively be the role of chief operating officer.
Trump is on track to be the party’s nominee atop the ticket in November, and Republicans predicted he would receive deference to put his preferred people in charge, as many nominees do.
“I have never had an issue with any nominee putting their imprint on the committee,” said Bill Palatucci, a New Jersey RNC member who has at times been critical of Trump.
“The important factor is senior staff, and Chris in my experience is a pro and understands the role of the RNC in the presidential cycle,” he added. “From there, it is the responsibility of the Executive Committee and the Budget Committee to ensure that the spending is appropriate.”
LaCivita’s installation gives Trump a trusted aide to oversee operations at the RNC in the meantime.
Whatley’s most immediate challenge will likely be revamping the party’s fundraising efforts, which lagged far behind the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in recent months.
Federal Election Commission filings showed the DNC had nearly three times as much cash on hand at the end of 2023 compared to the RNC, with the Republican committee posting its worst fundraising year in a decade.
“He’ll hit the ground running, and this sort of lead up time allows him to do that, but you still have the larger issue of Trump,” Heye said “We’ve learned you serve at the pleasure of Trump. And Trump is a very enthusiastic backer until he’s
Tags Donald TrumpDoug HeyeLara TrumpMichael WhatleyMichael WhatleyNorth CarolinaRNCRonna McDaniel
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/05/23/koch-edison-electric-institute-wooing-interior-department-vincent-devito
Fossil fuel groups backed by the Koch brothers and lobbyists for anti-renewable energy entities have been courting an Interior Department official responsible for energy policy, according to internal documents. Vincent DeVito, a senior energy advisor to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, has received considerable attention from these groups, accepting several invitations to closed meetings and conferences.
DeVito, a former lawyer and lobbyist for the Boston-based firm Bowditch and Dewey, joined Trump’s Interior Departmentas a political appointee in early 2017, and has already loomed as a key official responsible for rolling back federal species protections at the behest of the fossil fuel industry.
His calendar and travel documents, recently released through an open records request and reviewed by DeSmog, show that in his first few months in office, DeVito attended many energy industry events.
Agenda: ‘Easing Barriers’ to Fossil Fuel Development
In June last year, DeVito received an invitation to attend a meeting in Boston of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), a national trade group representing investor-owned utilities. The invitation was sent by Michael Whatley, a lobbyist for the firm HBW Resources, which runs the fossil fuel-backed front group Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA), of which EEI is a member.
In the invitation, which is signed by EEI President Thomas Kuhn, EEI sought insights about “easing barriers” to siting energy infrastructure such as transmission lines and gas pipelines, as well as on “regulatory reform.” The Interior Department oversees drilling and energy infrastructure permitting on all U.S. public lands and waters.
In a follow-up email to the invitation from an EEI staffer, DeVito was specifically asked to attend EEI’s closed-to-the-public natural resources subcommittee meeting, which would discuss “ways to streamline federal permitting processes on public lands.”
Lobbying records show that at the same time he sent the invitation to DeVito, Whatley, a former Trump campaign and transition team advisor, was registered to lobby the Interior Department on CEA’s behalf, advocating “access to federal lands and offshore areas for energy development.”
In recent years, the EEI and CEA have been involved in campaigns promoting oil and gas pipelines while opposing renewable energy expansion. In one of their latest endeavors, both groups participated in a successful effort to kill a pro-solar bill in the Maine legislature.
Yet according to Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager at the watchdog group Energy and Policy Institute, which tracks attacks on renewable energy, this seems to be the first evidence indicating HBW Resources and its front group CEA are working directly for EEI.
“The documents show Whatley using his insider status within the Trump administration to communicate on behalf of his client, a powerful electric utility industry association,” said Anderson. “So to connect the dots: here you have Whatley sharing a personal invite from Tom Kuhn, the president of EEI, for Trump's Interior Department to discuss deregulation at the utility industry’s largest annual events. All the while, EEI is also working with the oil and gas industry on such campaigns as countering public concerns about pipelines and fracking.”
Neither Whatley nor EEI replied to requests for comment.
Koch Connections
Two months after the EEI event, DeVito received an invitation to speak at a Richmond, Virginia meeting of the Koch-funded think tank Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Jason Funes, a special assistant at the Interior Department’s Office of Intergovernmental and External Affairs, who forwarded DeVito the invitation, told DeVito he was slated to speak on a panel with two other AFP executives.
DeVito would join Chrissy Harbin, formerly an AFP vice president for external affairs who recently joined the Department of Energy, and Grant Kidwell, formerly an AFP policy analyst who now works for the American Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC), on a panel titled “Give Me Liberty in Energy.”
Specifically, Funes wrote, the panel will focus on “deregulation in the energy sector,” adding: “You would be a YUGE hit if you could attend!” After DeVito accepted the invitation, Funes, who previously worked as an operative on Trump’s presidential campaign, responded: “Making American Energy Great Again! 1 event at a time :).”
An email from Jason Funes to Vincent Devito about attending an Americans for Prosperity meeting.
AFP, which lauded Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement as a “major victory,” has a history of climate change denial. In 2008, the organization held a 40-state “Hot Air Tour,” decrying “global warming alarmism.”
Meetings with Fossil Fuel Industry
These were not the only industry meetings DeVito attended in 2017. In September, he spoke at the Kentucky Coal Association’s annual meeting. Tyler White, the association’s president, told DeVito’s assistant in an email that because the meeting will be closed to the public and press, “it will be a friendly crowd.”
From an email by Tyler White, president of the Kentucky Coal Association, to Vincent Devito’s assistant.]
Shortly after, DeVito accepted an invitation by the North Dakota Petroleum Council to attend its meeting in Grand Forks. The original agenda billed DeVito’s talk in a way that suggests a focus on deregulation — “30 Day Permitting: Is It Achievable?” — though a handwritten note crossing out that title indicates it was changed to “Energy Perspective.”
Other events DeVito attended included the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s energy and sustainability conference, which was sponsored by such fossil fuel companies as Dominion, EQT Corporation, and Mountain Valley Pipeline; the Energy Exposition in Colorado, an oil and gas industry event; and the oil and gas industry-funded Western Energy Alliance’s annual meeting in August 2017.
The Department of Interior did not respond to detailed questions about this story.
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