More About the Man Bankrolling Santorum

Posted on Feb 12, 2012

Gage Skidmore (CC-BY-SA)

Foster Friess claimed liberals were to blame for the Columbine shooting, Think Progress says.

Who is Foster Friess, the multimillionaire financial investor who is almost single-handedly keeping Rick Santorum’s monetarily challenged campaign afloat?

Friess has long used his personal fortune to champion conservative causes while supporting GOP candidates. He has garnered much attention recently for his connection to Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who has seen his political stock rise after last week’s victories in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and the Missouri primary.

In the wake of Santorum’s momentum, Think Progress has put together a list of seven “of the more interesting things about Friess” that you should know. —TB

Think Progress:

1. He has a long history funding Islamophobic organizations. One of Friess’ biggest beneficiaries is a collection of some of the largest Islamophobic organizations in the country, including Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy and David Horowitz’s Terrorism Awareness Project.

2. He filmed an introduction video to Clarion Fund’s Islamophobic “Obsession” Documentary. The controversy and outrage over the film “Obsession” has been well documented, but that didn’t seem to faze Friess, who filmed a five and a half minute promotional video in which he encouraged viewers to purchase the full DVD and use it “as a voting guide when you go into the election booth on election day.”

3. He preached intolerance in a commencement speech at the Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University. “Be more intolerant,” urged Friess to a room full of graduating students in 2007. “There’s a group of people—maybe the secular Taliban is a good name for them—who have morphed this idea, that you have to accept my values being every bit as cherished as your values. That’s not tolerance…there are too many things in this world which we sit back and tolerate.”

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