On Face the Nation, the interviewer says tobacco company Reynolds American gave $5 million to a Trump-backed political action committee a week before the administration rolled out a new tobacco policy. Calley Means answers that this was a big argument from "Suzy's team." He adds that he heard no such talk about vapes, but did hear direct talk about needing the sugar industry's money for the midterms. "You're basically able to excuse everything," he says.
The receipt
- Who
- Calley Means
- Where
- interview - Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan
- Original footage
- Face the Nation · watch the full video from this moment
- Length
- 35 seconds, unedited within the cut
- Plays
- 41 on Instagram
Read the transcript
So that's what I saw. So to that point, so the tobacco company, Reynolds American, donated $5 million to a political action committee backed by Trump a week before the administration rolled out a new tobacco policy. Yeah, and that was a big reason why there was that was a big argument from Suzy's team on why we need to do this. I didn't hear this specifically with vapes, but with the sugar industry. It was direct conversation about how we need the sugar industry's money for the midterm. So, you know, when you have the midterm strategy and a belief that money for the midterms is more important than voter promises, you're basically able to excuse everything.
Machine transcript of the clip's audio; names are checked, small words may differ.