The American Democracy Legal Fund (ADLF), a group of left-wing politicians, has accused Duncan Hunter, a congressional representative from California, of being a supporter of the vaping industry. As a result, the group has asked Office of Congressional Ethics to look into the matter and investigate the character of the Congressman.
The ADLF, an organization founded by David Brock, a close ally of Hillary Clinton, issued a letter to the ethics office to register their complaints. The contents of the letter addressed Duncan Hunter’s endorsement on private vaping of products like the e-cigarette, having deliberately disregarded the House of Ethics and Rules.
The group said that Hunter had become so much affiliated with the vaping industry, and as a result of this affiliation, Hunter has been accruing benefits while dispensing favors for the industry. San Diego, Union-Tribune was the initial group to do this reporting.
Rep. Duncan Hunter is himself a vaper. His roots are traced from Alpine, and he is a true Republican. He had caused the political group among other people to alert their antennae in the past through vaping when the congressional hearings were on progression. The vaping has earned Rep. Duncan Hunter a surmountable amount of reputation in the House of United States. He is thus viewed as a showboat. This has left some advocates uncomfortable with the stunts.
As a counter, Duncan Hunter has also prepared something for the legislature to chew. He has introduced thoughtful legislation that is geared towards addressing the issue of deeming regulation of the FDA. He has, therefore, made sure that the HR 2194 Act will modify the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that will have to oblige the FDA to regulate the vaping products rationally. HR2194 is a Cigarette Smoking Reduction and Electronic Vapor Alternatives Act.
Duncan Hunter’s spokesperson, Michael Harrison, defended him saying that he did nothing off beam. He explained that the congressional representative was on a campaign to appreciate and support the fact that vaping industry and e-cigarette has been focusing on reducing the harm. He added that vaping is a critical tool used by many people to aide in reducing harmful smoking habits.
Union-Tribune has recorded a vast amount of up to $39461 that Hunter has so far been received since 2015 from donors who are connected to vaping industry. Several lobbyists representing vape and tobacco have also contributed some donations to Rep. Duncan Hunter for the effort.
ADLF, the watchdog organization, had been put in place to keep a close eye the Republicans while calling out abuses by Republicans like Duncan Hunter. However, it has diverted its focus to attacking all politicians and organizations opposed to Hillary Clinton. This was evident in 2016 when the group submitted an ethics complaint against Sen. Bernie Sanders who was then a major Clinton’s political rival in the Democratic Party’s primaries. Moreover, there elapsed accusations against the group whereby it was said to lead a character assassination campaign against Sanders. This was evidenced by a tweet from Gregory Conley on the fourth day of December 2017 which read “Frivolous ethics grievance filed by bleak vampire David Brock against Republican Duncan Hunter for daring to endorse vaping. This will not go anywhere." The Union-Tribune is said to have asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to look into Hunter.
David Brock is the leader of ADLF who happens to be the right-wing journalist who switched sides to become an antagonist to Clinton. Brock also founded liberal media watchdog site called Media Matters for America. David is also said to be the co-founder of “super PACs” whose main agenda was to raise funds that were to be diverted to promote Hillary Clinton's presidential campaigns and runs.
Although there has been a significant commitment from the ADLF team towards ridding the house of the taint (Hunter's vape connections), the team does not seem to care about the obscenely huge contributions from the pharmaceuticals sector to candidates and the members of the Congress. This might be due to the fact that David Brock, the organization’s founder, does not want to draw attention to the over 2.3 million dollars that Hilary Clinton, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, received from the pharmaceutical industry in 2016.