New York City-based leaders from across the business spectrum have urged Congress to certify the presidential election results as scheduled on Wednesday, warning that any delays would “run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy.”
The letter, issued today, comes as Congress braces for a showdown on Wednesday between 11 incumbent and incoming U.S. senators and some 140 GOP members of the House vowing to contest the electoral college results from their states. The push is part of President Donald Trump’s increasingly desperate campaign to falsely claim that he prevailed in the Nov. 3 presidential election over his Democratic challenger, President-elect Joe Biden. Trump’s legal challenges to the election have been dismissed by judges in multiple states.
The two-paragraph statement from the Partnership for New York City organization was signed by more than 170 business leaders, including Hearst CEO Steve Swartz, Altice CEO Dexter Goei, Conde Nast CEO Roger Lynch, Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth, Silvercup Studios CEO Alan Suna, Rubenstein president Steven Rubenstein, Microsoft president Brad Smith, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, WNBA commissioner Catherine Engelbert, Henry Kravis, co-chairman and co-CEO of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Greg Mondre, co-CEO of Silver Lake, Kewsong Lee and CEO of Carlyle Group.
Another notable signer was Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, manufacturer of one of several vaccines that are seen as the best hope of controlling the coronavirus pandemic that has left more than 350,000 Americans dead and part of the U.S. economy in shambles.
“The incoming Biden administration faces the urgent tasks of defeating COVID-19 and restoring the livelihoods of millions of Americans who have lost jobs and businesses during the pandemic,” the letter states. “Our duly elected leaders deserve the respect and bipartisan support of all Americans at a moment when we are dealing with the worst health and economic crises in modern history. There should be no further delay in the orderly transfer of power.”
The letter was released one day after the Washington Post published excerpts of a telephone call in which Trump sought to bully Georgia state officials into re-examining the vote tallies in the Peach state. Or as he put it, “find 11,780 votes.”
Here is the complete Partnership for New York letter:
This presidential election has been decided and it is time for the country to move forward. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have won the Electoral College and the courts have rejected challenges to the electoral process. Congress should certify the electoral vote on Wednesday, January 6. Attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy.
The incoming Biden administration faces the urgent tasks of defeating COVID-19 and restoring the livelihoods of millions of Americans who have lost jobs and businesses during the pandemic. Our duly elected leaders deserve the respect and bipartisan support of all Americans at a moment when we are dealing with the worst health and economic crises in modern history. There should be no further delay in the orderly transfer of power.
Lee S. Ainslie, III, Managing Partner, Maverick Capital
Ellen Alemany, Chairman & CEO, CIT Group Inc.
Simon Allen, Chief Executive Officer, McGraw-Hill Education, Inc.
Jeffrey H. Aronson, Managing Principal, Centerbridge Partners
Ajay Banga, Executive Chairman, Mastercard
Neil Barr, Managing Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Erin Barringer, Director, Dalberg Americas
Candace K. Beinecke, Senior Partner, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
Charles R. Bendit, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Taconic Investment Partners LLC
Stephen Berger, Chairman, Odyssey Investment Partners, LLC
William H. Berkman, Co-Chairman & CEO, Radius Global Infrastructure, Inc.
Seth Bernstein, President & CEO, AB
David Beveridge, Senior Partner, Shearman & Sterling, LLP
Michael W. Blair, Presiding Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Jeff T. Blau, Chief Executive Officer, The Related Companies, L.P.
Henry Blodget, CEO and co-founder, Insider Inc.
Kathy Bloomgarden, Chief Executive Officer, Ruder Finn, Inc.
Adam M. Blumenthal, Managing Partner, Blue Wolf Capital Partners
Neil Blumenthal, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Warby Parker
John Borthwick, Founder & CEO, Betaworks
Albert Bourla, Chairman & CEO, Pfizer Inc.
John Bruckner, President, NY, National Grid
Ari Buchalter, President & CEO, Intersection
Martin S. Burger, Chief Executive Officer, Silverstein Properties, Inc.
Donald A. Capoccia, Principal, BFC Partners
Richard M. Cashin, Managing Partner, One Equity Partners
Timothy Cawley, President & CEO, Con Edison, Inc.
Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Anthony R. Coscia, Partner and Executive Committee Member, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP
Cromwell Coulson, President & CEO, OTC Markets Group
Todd C. DeGarmo, Chief Executive Officer, STUDIOS Architecture
Toby Dodd, President, New York Tri-State, Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.
William R. Dougherty, Chairman, Executive Committee, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Brian Duperreault, Chief Executive Officer, American International Group, Inc.
Douglas Durst, Chairman, Durst Organization Inc.
Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman
Scott A. Edelman, Chairman, Milbank LLP
Blair W. Effron, Co-Founder, Centerview Partners
Joel S. Ehrenkranz, Partner and Co-Founder, Ehrenkranz Partners L.P.
Douglas F. Eisenberg, Founder and CEO, A&E Real Estate, LLC
Catherine Engelbert, Commissioner, WNBA
Alexander Farman-Farmaian, Vice Chairman, Portfolio Manager, Edgewood Management LLC
Rob Fauber, President & Chief Executive Officer, Moody’s Corporation
Laurence D. Fink, Chairman & CEO, BlackRock
Peter Finn, Founding Partner, Finn Partners
John Fish, Chairman & CEO, Suffolk
Winston C. Fisher, Partner, Fisher Brothers
Alan H. Fishman, Founder, Willow Holdings, Inc.
William E. Ford, Chief Executive Officer, General Atlantic LLC
Paul Fribourg, Chairman & CEO, Continental Grain Company
Eric J. Friedman, Executive Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Dave Gilboa, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Warby Parker
MaryAnne Gilmartin, Founder & CEO, MAG Partners LP
Dan Glaser, President & CEO, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.
Dexter Goei, Chief Executive Officer, Altice USA
Timothy Gokey, Chief Executive Officer, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.
Perry Golkin, Chief Executive Officer, PPC Enterprises LLC
Barry M. Gosin, Chief Executive Officer, Newmark Knight Frank
Jonathan D. Gray, President & COO, Blackstone
Logan Green, Co-Founder & CEO, Lyft
David J. Greenwald, Chairman, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Kelly Grier, US Chair & Managing Partner and Americas Managing Partner, Ernst & Young LLP
Stewart KP Gross, Managing Director, Lightyear Capital
Robin Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, JetBlue Airways Corporation
Dale Hemmerdinger, Chairman, Atco Properties & Management, Inc.
Donna Imperato, Chief Executive Officer, BCW
Frederick J. Iseman, Chairman & CEO, CI Capital Partners LLC
Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman & CEO, Lazard Ltd
John Josephson, Chairman & CEO, Sesac
Roberta Kaplan, Founding Partner, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP
Harry Kargman, Founder & CEO, Kargo Global, Inc.
Brad S. Karp, Chair, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
Charles R. Kaye, Chief Executive Officer, Warburg Pincus LLC
Anthony S. Kendall, Chairman & CEO, Mitchell & Titus, LLP
Richard A. Kennedy, President & CEO, Skanska USA Inc.
Michel A. Khalaf, President & CEO, MetLife, Inc.
Brian Kingston, CEO of Real Estate, Brookfield Asset Management
Paul Knopp, U.S. Chair & CEO, KPMG LLP
Henry R. Kravis, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Philip Krim, Co-Founder & CEO, Casper
Barbara Armand Kushner, President, Armand Corporation
Christopher Larsen, Chief Executive Officer, Halmar International, LLC
Rochelle B. Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
Kewsong Lee, Chief Executive Officer, The Carlyle Group
Rich Lesser, President & CEO, Boston Consulting Group
Joey Levin, Chief Executive Officer, IAC
Allan Levine, Chairman & CEO, Global Atlantic Financial Company
Jeffrey E. Levine, Chairman, Douglaston Development
Robert A. Levine, Chief Executive Officer, RAL Companies & Affiliates, LLC
Martin Lipton, Senior Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Alex Liu, Managing Partner & Chairman, Kearney
Robert P. LoCascio, Founder & CEO, LivePerson, Inc.
Roger Lynch, Chief Executive Officer, Condé Nast
Mehdi Mahmud, CEO & President, First Eagle Investment Management, LLC
Anthony Malkin, Chairman, President & CEO, Empire State Realty Trust
Anthony E. Mann, President & CEO, E-J Electric Installation Co.
Theodore Mathas, Chairman & CEO, New York Life Insurance Company
Sandeep Mathrani, Chief Executive Officer, WeWork
Peter W. May, President & Founding Partner, Trian Partners
Charles R. McCall, Chief Executive Officer, Astoria Energy II LLC &, Astoria Energy LLC
Kevin J. McCarty, Chairman & CEO, West Monroe Partners
Andrew McMahon, President & CEO, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
Avner Mendelson, President & CEO, Bank Leumi USA
Heidi Messer, Co-Founder & Chairperson, Collective[i]
Keith Mestrich, President & CEO, Amalgamated Bank
Marc Metrick, President & CEO, Saks Fifth Avenue
Edward J. Minskoff, Chairman & CEO, Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc.
Greg Mondre, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Silver Lake
Tyler Morse, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner, MCR Development LLC
Deanna M. Mulligan, Chief Executive Officer, DM Mulligan, LLC
Daniel Nardello, Chief Executive Officer, Nardello & Co. LLC
Liz Neumark, Chair & Founder, Great Performances
Mark Pearson, President & CEO, Equitable
Michael A. Peterson, Chairman & CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Michael Phillips, President, Jamestown Properties LLC
Charles E. Phillips, Jr., Chairman, Infor
Deirdre Quinn, Co-Founder & CEO, Lafayette 148 New York
Daniel Ramot, Co-Founder & CEO, Via
Steven L. Rattner, Chairman & CEO, Willett Advisors LLC
Scott H. Rechler, Chairman & CEO, RXR Realty LLC
Christiana Riley, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Bank Americas
John Romeo, Managing Partner, Oliver Wyman
James A. Rosenthal, Chief Executive Officer, BlueVoyant
Evan Roth, Co-Chief Executive Officer, BBR Partners, LLC
Michael I. Roth, Chairman & CEO, Interpublic Group
Steven Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein Communications, Inc.
William C. Rudin, Co-Chairman & CEO, Rudin Management Company, Inc.
Kevin P. Ryan, Founder & CEO, AlleyCorp
Timothy Ryan, U.S. Chair & Senior Partner, PwC
Faiza Saeed, Presiding Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
Scott Salmirs, President & CEO, ABM Industries Inc.
Ralph Schlosstein, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Evercore Partners Inc.
Michael Schmidtberger, Partner & Chair of the Executive Committee, Sidley Austin LLP
Alan D. Schnitzer, Chairman & CEO, The Travelers Companies, Inc.
Alan D. Schwartz, Executive Chairman, Guggenheim Partners, LLC
Kathleen Shanahan, Chief Executive Officer, Turtle & Hughes, Inc.
Suzanne Shank, President & CEO, Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC
Joseph C. Shenker, Chair, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Tarek Sherif, Co-Founder & CEO, Medidata Solutions, Inc.
Jonathan Silvan, Chief Executive Officer, Global Strategy Group, LLC
Adam Silver, Commissioner, National Basketball Association
Joshua Silverman, Chief Executive Officer, Etsy, Inc.
Brad Smith, President, Microsoft
David M. Solomon, Chairman & CEO, Goldman Sachs
Jeffrey Solomon, Chairman & CEO, Cowen
Rob Speyer, President & CEO, Tishman Speyer
Stephen J. Squeri, Chairman & CEO, American Express Company
Robert K. Steel, Chairman, Perella Weinberg Partners
Douglas C. Steiner, Chairman, Steiner Studios
Alan Suna, Chief Executive Officer, Silvercup Studios
Sanjay Swani, Managing Partner, Tailwind Capital
Steven R. Swartz, President & CEO, Hearst
Julie Sweet, Chief Executive Officer, Accenture
Paul J. Taubman, Chairman & CEO, PJT Partners Inc.
Owen D. Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, Boston Properties
Gary M. Tischler, Founder & Managing Partner, Vanbarton Group LLC
Daniel R. Tishman, Vice Chairman, AECOM & Principal, Tishman Realty
Paul Todd, Chief Executive Officer, GLG
Jean-Marie Tritant, Chief Executive Officer, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
William B. Tyree, Managing Partner, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Joseph Ucuzoglu, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte
Robert Vecchio, Chief Executive Officer, LPI, Inc.
Ellis Verdi, President, DeVito/Verdi
James R. Wacht, President, Lee & Associates NYC
George H. Walker, Chairman & CEO, Neuberger Berman Group LLC
Robert E. Wankel, Chairman & CEO, The Shubert Organization, Inc.
Pamela S. Wasserstein, President, Vox Media
David Winter, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Standard Industries Inc.
Robert Wolf, Chief Executive Officer, 32 Advisors LLC
Kathryn S. Wylde, President & CEO, Partnership for New York City
Nina Zagat, Co-Founder, Zagat
Tim Zagat, Co-Founder, Zagat
Strauss Zelnick, Partner, ZMC
James Zelter, Co-President, Apollo Global Management, Inc.
John Zimmer, Co-Founder & President, Lyft