Bannon: Kochs ‘would own’ Pence if he became president

Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is reportedly worried that billionaire donors Charles and David Koch would have too much influence over Vice President Pence should he ever become president.

“I’m concerned he’d be a President that the Kochs would own,” Bannon told The New Yorker.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) expressed a similar sentiment to the magazine.

{mosads}“If Pence were to become President for any reason, the government would be run by the Koch brothers — period. He’s been their tool for years,” Whitehouse said. 

The Koch brothers “were very excited” that Pence was chosen to be Trump’s running mate, Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, told the magazine.

Pence, who has close ties to the Kochs, in July served as the keynote speaker for a Koch brothers summit in August and spoke to a gathering of their network of conservative donors as recently as Friday.

In June, it was reported that the Koch brothers’ donor network plans to spend $400 million to push the conservative agenda forward in the 2018 midterm elections.