Biden chooses Dem billionaire campaign donor with private jet to oversee key transportation board

President Joe Biden intends to fill a key transportation board position with a Democrat billionaire donor who reportedly co-owns a professional sports team.

Samuel Slater was nominated by Biden to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s (MWAA) board of directors soon after the president began his term in 2021. But after Slater’s nomination was blocked by the Senate Commerce Committee, Biden is making another attempt to install the campaign donor to the position.

According to Fox News, Slater is “the managing partner of his family’s company, Slater Family Holdings, which is a subsidiary of the Boston-based real estate company Tremont Asset Management. In addition, he is a member of the board of the NHL Seattle Kraken franchise. In 2012, he co-founded the Hollywood film company Burn Later Productions.”

“According to Federal Elections Commission data, Slater personally contributed about $140,000 to Biden’s campaign while also functioning as a ‘bundler,’ or someone who gathers and arranges the contributions of other campaign donors. Slater was a member of the National Finance Committee for the campaign,” Fox News reported.

Boston Magazine described Slater as a “Boston-area developer, Seattle sports team owner, and Hollywood film producer” in a profile published in September.

A nonprofit watchdog organization that took a look at Slater’s donations found that he had also given $150,000 to Biden’s inaugural committee

“Prior to his confirmation hearing last month, Slater sent a questionnaire back to Senate Commerce Committee Republicans, stating that he did not think his sizeable contributions to both the Democratic National Committee and Biden’s campaign created a conflict of interest,” according to Fox News.

Thomas Jones, the co-founder and president of the watchdog group American Accountability Foundation (AAF) remarked on the “swampiness” of Biden’s nomination.

“This is the extreme of swampiness,” he told Fox News Digital, “Biden is rewarding a billionaire donor who travels the world in his private jet by giving him a government job for which he’s completely unqualified.”

“This is everything the American people hate about how Washington, D.C., operates,” Jones added. “It is utterly shameful. We hope that the U.S. Senate will reject this and bring back sincere, effective governance in our nation’s capital.”

Slater is known for owning the Seattle Kraken NHL team as well as a Hollywood production company and for buying “Playboy’s ‘Big Bunny’ private plane for his family’s real estate company last year,” according to a Boston magazine story published in September that noted Slater ranked 65 on its 150 Most Influential Bostonians of 2023 list.

“Today, Slater is the managing partner of Tremont Asset Management, the real estate arm of Slater Family Holdings, which has a portfolio of more than 3,500 Class A apartments (the top quality classification), office properties, and agricultural holdings in a dozen states and Canada,” the article stated.

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The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, for which Slater was nominated by Biden, oversees Reagan National and Dulles International airports. It is governed by a 17-member Board of Directors who are appointed by the governors of Virginia and Maryland, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the president of the United States.

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Frieda Powers

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