Sanders Takes Aim at Netflix Over Taxes: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Sanders took at shot of Netflix Inc., saying the streaming service paid no federal income taxes in 2018.

“Your $8.99 Netflix subscription is more than the company paid in federal income taxes last year (nothing),” the Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont senator tweeted. He added that he would “make massive corporations finally pay their fair share.”

Netflix disputed his claim. The company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that it paid an effective tax rate of 1% in 2018. That was well below the federal corporate tax rate of 21%.

The company reduced its tax burden by claiming credits for research expenses and deductions for paying employees in stock. In a statement, Netflix said it “did pay US Federal taxes in 2018” but didn’t disclose the amount.

Republicans Raise $25.3 Million in October (4:14 p.m.)

The Republican National Committee raised $25.3 million in October, its biggest haul for the month in a nonelection year, it announced Tuesday.

Ronna McDaniel, the RNC’s chairwoman, tied the big numbers to the public’s distaste for the impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, which began in October and was formalized with a House vote at the end of the month. “It’s clear that the American people are sick and tired of the Democrats’ baseless investigations,” she said in a statement.

The party ended October with $61.4 million cash on hand. It’s raised $194 million so far to support Trump’s re-election and Republican candidates up and down the ballot. The RNC is targeting vulnerable House Democrats in their districts with newspaper ad buys coinciding with the first day of impeachment hearings.

The RNC has raised far more than the Democratic National Committee, which had taken in $67 million through September and ended the month with $8.6 million in the bank. Parties with an incumbent president usually have a fundraising advantage over the party out of power.

Both the RNC and DNC are due to file detailed reports on last month’s financial activity to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. -- Bill Allison

Warren Plan Targets White Nationalist Violence (9:00 a.m.)

Elizabeth Warren pledged to prioritize fighting white nationalism, unveiling a proposal that would restrict gun access for people with expressed violent intent or hate-crime convictions.

“Domestic right-wing terrorism is completely incompatible with American values,” Warren wrote in a Medium post Tuesday, pledging that, as president, she’d “use every tool we have to defeat it.”

Warren said she would treat hate crimes as domestic terrorism by increasing federal oversight, including requiring state and local governments to provide additional data and having the FBI conduct more investigations.

She’d direct the Pentagon to expand gun background checks and to better track bias crimes in the military. She’d establish a commission to identify and address violent extremist content on the Internet.

President Donald Trump “wants Americans to blame their troubles on those who are new to our country, or who don’t look the same or pray the same or love the same,” Warren said, adding, “But America can be better than that.” -- Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou

Sanders Tops 4 Million Individual Donations (7:13 a.m.)

Bernie Sanders’ campaign said he received more than 4 million individual donations, making him the fastest presidential candidate in history to reach the milestone.

The Vermont senator is seeking to end all corporate giving in federal elections, and his $25.3 million third-quarter haul, the highest among Democratic contenders, came exclusively from individual donations.

Senator Elizabeth Warren also eschews corporate money, but other contenders, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, have relied in part on donations from corporate political action committees.

Sanders, who suffered a heart attack earlier this year, got a boost from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has campaigned with him in New York and Iowa. -- Kasia Klimasinska

COMING UP

Ten candidates have qualified for the fifth Democratic debate on Wednesday in Atlanta: Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Cory Booker and Tom Steyer.

--With assistance from Kasia Klimasinska and Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Allison in Washington DC at ballison14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Kathleen Hunter

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