Biden’s senate campaign committees received $208,175 from MBNA employees from 1989 through 2010, the second-largest source of contributions, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org. In the 2006 election cycle, employees from Citigroup employees donated $18,825, those from Bear Stearns donated $15,000 and from Goldman Sachs donated $10,500.
In total, Biden received $1,126,375 from those in the securities and investment industry, $304,475 from finance and credit company workers, and $295,900 from commercial bank employees.
Biden’s ties to MBNA and banks span beyond political contributions from its employees. Home sales, family jobs, and free trips caused critics to dub him “the senator from MBNA.”
In February 1996, MBNA executive John Cochran bought Biden’s home outside Wilmington for the full $1.2 million asking price, while other similarly appraised houses at the time sold for around $100,000 to $200,000 less than asking price. MBNA then paid Cochran $330,115 that year for moving expenses and noted that he lost $210,000 due to the sale of his Maryland home.
Cochran also donated $2,000 to Biden’s 1996 Senate reelection campaign, FEC records show. MBNA in 1997 flew Biden and his wife to Maine so he could give a speech, Biden’s Senate financial disclosure showed.
Biden’s son Hunter started a job MBNA in November 1996 after Biden won reelection, in part because he wanted to be close to home. After leaving the company, Hunter became a lobbyist, but continued collecting an undisclosed amount of money from MBNA as a consultant — all while the bankruptcy bill moved through Congress. MBNA said that Hunter never lobbied for them and that his work had nothing to do with the bankruptcy bill.
The Wilmington News-Journal noted in 2008 that Biden was "neighbor to wealthy and powerful company titans and du Pont family members," one of the richest families in America.
A spokesperson for Biden did not respond to a request for comment, but in a 2008 NBC interview Biden downplayed his family’s relationships with MBNA executives and rejected the notion that he was in the “pocket of the corporate lobbyists.” Those who defended Biden’s support for the bankruptcy bill said that he was looking out for the interests of Delaware’s economy, a major financial and banking center.
Biden’s support for the 2005 bankruptcy bill sets him apart from progressive Democrats running for president and other Democratic leaders in Congress. Independent then-Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinsten of California, Barack Obama of Illinois, and Chuck Schumer of New York all voted against the bill. Elizabeth Warren, not yet a senator, fought against the changes.
“The bill was a big, fat, wet kiss for credit card companies and auto lenders. It ensured that private student loans could not be discharged in bankruptcies,” Levitin said. “It also exacerbated risky mortgage lending.”
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