Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch declared Sunday that his expansive political network would not support Donald Trump, but the 80-year-old conservative icon insisted he would not support Hillary Clinton, either.
Koch, a popular target of Democrats, called any rumor that he would back the Democratic presidential candidate “a blood libel.”
“At this point I can’t support either candidate, but I’m certainly not going to support Hillary,” Koch told hundreds of donors gathered for a weekend retreat in a luxury hotel at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. […]
“We think we can be most effective working on the Senate,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a major player in the vast Koch network. “We’re not engaged on the presidential.” […]
The ambitious Koch network has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to influence politics and public policy over the last decade. The network planned to invest heavily in the 2016 presidential contest, but sharply changed its course after Trump became the Republican standard-bearer.
Koch on Sunday described his first priority as “to preserve the country’s financial future and to eliminate corporate welfare.”
