Business titans privately urged NYC mayor to use police on Columbia protesters, chats show [View all]

[demmiblue]

A WhatsApp chat started by some wealthy Americans after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack reveals their focus on Mayor Eric Adams and their work to shape U.S. opinion of the Gaza war.

A group of billionaires and business titans working to shape U.S. public opinion of the war in Gaza privately pressed New York City’s mayor last month to send police to disperse pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, according to communications obtained by The Washington Post and people familiar with the group.

Business executives including Kind snack company founder Daniel Lubetzky, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik and real estate investor Joseph Sitt held a Zoom video call on April 26 with Mayor Eric Adams (D), about a week after the mayor first sent New York police to Columbia’s campus, a log of chat messages shows. During the call, some attendees discussed making political donations to Adams, as well as how the chat group’s members could pressure Columbia’s president and trustees to permit the mayor to send police to the campus to handle protesters, according to chat messages summarizing the conversation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/business-leaders-chat-group-eric-adams-columbia-protesters/ (paywall)

NYC Tycoons Pushed Mayor To Sic NYPD on Columbia Student Protesters

A group of wealthy New York City tycoons pressured Mayor Eric Adams into using police force against student protesters at Columbia University, The Washington Post reports. In a WhatsApp group chat populated by some of the richest people in the United States, business executives discussed ways of pressuring Columbia’s president and trustees to permit Adams to use New York Police Department to disperse protesters. Some members said they offered to fund private investigators to support New York Police Department, an offer they said Adams had accepted—but City Hall denied ever happened. According to the Post, some of the attendees of the meeting with Adams were KIND Snacks founder Daniel Lubetzky, Third Point founder Daniel Loeb, Sir Len Blavatnik, a billionaire, and Thor Equities Joseph Sitt. The upper-crust group chat, initiated by billionaire real estate magnate Barry Sternlicht days after Hamas’ deadly incursion into Israeli territory, aimed to “change the narrative” in support of Israel, according to one message. The members of the chat include former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Dell CEO Michael Dell, Bill Ackman, and Jared Kushner’s brother Joshua, along with more than a dozen of Forbes’ annual list of billionaires.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nyc-tycoons-pushed-mayor-eric-adams-to-sic-nypd-on-columbia-student-protesters