Tom Steyer Tells PBS He's 'David' Standing Against Koch 'Goliath'

May 27th, 2015 12:17 PM

Apparently Tom Steyer knows his Bible better than he knows math. Or perhaps he just hasn’t had a heart to heart with his accountant in several years.

Liberal climate change activist and political donor Tom Steyer likened himself to David, fighting against the “Goliath” of conservative political donors, in a May 26 interview with PBS NewsHour. He lamented, “when you look at the relative dollars, it really is a David and Goliath situation, and we’re very definitely the small shepherd boy with five rocks and a sling.”

The analogy might be cute, but it’s also factually incorrect. Even PBS NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill, who has a history of liberal bias, saw through the analogy. “The small shepherd boy, really?” she scoffed, “You’re David?”

Contrary to that image, Steyer was the number one political contributor in the 2014 election cycle. He gave $74 million through his NextGen Climate PAC to push the climate change issue during the election. The Koch brothers, who Steyer attacked in the interview, gave a combined $7.7 million towards the 2014 election - only slightly more than one-tenth of Steyer’s contributions.