Above Photo:Â brownfield Txseo/Flickr
Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) who was scheduled to hold hearings on a an Internet privacy bill abruptly canceled a fundraiser the night before the hearings with the telecom industry when word got out the fundraiser would be protested. Politico reports:
“Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) today said a controversial fundraiser the telecommunications industry planned to hold for him has been canceled.
“The sponsors of the fundraiser canceled the fundraiser,” Wicker told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Wicker declined comment on the reasoning behind the cancellation, which followed heavy backlash from advocacy groups that hammered Wicker for being feted by an industry under his committee’s jurisdiction. “You’d have to ask them,” he said, referring to the event’s would-be hosts, which included the political action committees for AT&T and trade group U.S. Telecom.
But he downplayed the significance of his initial plans to partake. “Members of Congress have fundraisers and they are scheduled throughout the year,” he said. “I don’t think many people make much of it.”
The fundraiser was originally set to take place a night before a Senate Commerce hearing on data privacy. Advocacy group Fight for the Future mounted a protest Tuesday night outside of where the event, first reported by POLITICO, was slated to take place.”
🚨 BREAKING: @politico is reporting that a Big Telecom-hosted fundraiser for @SenatorWicker was cancelled at the last minute after activists working with @fightfortheftr announced a snap protest outside the slated venue. #RealPrivacy https://t.co/Q7gUTisiYE
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) February 27, 2019
It sure looks like the telecom industry chickened out and canceled their fundraiser for @SenatorWicker because of our protest last night… 💪 ✊
📸 See photos from our action outside the the fundraiser’s slated venue: https://t.co/9lUy6duzks https://t.co/Q7gUTisiYE
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) February 27, 2019