Former Acting Director of the CIA, Michael Morell, spoke at a gathering for corporate executives hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday. Morell’s invitation to speak at the event is significant because of his ties to the Democratic-aligned opponents of former President Donald Trump, whom he has referred to as the “deep state.” Morell played a key role in the Bush-era torture program and subsequent spying on the U.S. Senate to thwart an investigation into what the administration had dubbed “enhanced interrogation.” After leaving the CIA, he joined a private consulting firm, Beacon Global Strategies, linked to former allies of the Clintons. He endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 and teamed up with the Biden campaign in 2020 to organize a letter arguing that Hunter Biden’s leaked laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” However, it was later revealed that the laptop’s journey from a Wilmington, Delaware, computer repair store to the New York Post was a Rudy Giuliani-led information operation, and that the laptop was real. The Morell letter was used by the Biden campaign to muffle coverage of the laptop and its contents. Joe Biden himself cited the letter in a debate with Trump.
The rift between the Trump wing of the Republican Party and the Chamber began during the 2016 campaign when the pro-business lobby did not get behind Trump soon enough. Trump and his allies felt further betrayed after Republicans moved through Congress a multitrillion-dollar tax cut, only to see the Chamber increasingly endorse Democrats in close House races. Senate Republicans such as Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas rarely miss an opportunity to lambaste the Chamber; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., have made their refusal to meet with the organization conspicuous.
However, Morell’s appearance at the Chamber event also signals that big business has interests that go beyond Trump’s many grievances related to the 2020 election. Morell’s talk focused on the geopolitics of the U.S.’s ongoing confrontations with Russia and China, which are pocketbook concerns for the Chamber’s Association Committee of 100, made up of top corporate executives. His talk was moderated by John G. Murphy, a Chamber executive who leads international policy.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest voice for big business in America, and its strained relationship with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party is a stark departure from decades of political allegiance between the two. The Chamber’s priorities have not aligned with the priorities of House Republicans or the interests of their own members, and they should not expect a meeting with Speaker McCarthy as long as that’s the case, according to Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for McCarthy.
In conclusion, Morell’s invitation to speak at the Chamber event is significant because it highlights the increasingly warm ties between the Chamber of Commerce and Democratic-aligned opponents of Donald Trump. It also signals that big business has interests that go beyond Trump’s many grievances related to the 2020 election. The Chamber’s strained relationship with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party is a stark departure from decades of political allegiance between the two.