'There were 2 David Kochs': Biographer discusses the billionaire donor's dual legacy

Transcript

There were two different versions of David Koch, says a reporter who wrote a book about the billionaire donor's controversial family. 

Koch has died at the age of 79.

Along with his brother Charles, he was best known for financing U.S. conservative politicians and organizations that espoused anti-climate change and anti-taxation rhetoric.

But he was also a massive supporter of the arts and sciences, funnelling huge amounts of money into museums, universities and cancer research organizations. 

Daniel Schulman, the deputy Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones magazine, wrote a biography of the Koch brothers called Sons of Wichita. He spoke with As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.

What was David Koch like in person? 

David was sort of an imposing figure. 

I only met him on one occasion, which was at the Republican National Convention in 2012, when I was at work on my biography of the Koch brothers.

I remember him saying something to me along the lines of, "Make sure you do a good job." 

I think he was quite wary of how his family might be portrayed in that book.

You wrote in Mother Jones [on Friday] that there were two David Kochs. What do you mean? 

On the one hand, David really wanted to portray himself as a philanthropist in the classic sense, kind of a Carnegie-esque figure. And he gave, you know, $100 million at a clip to medical research institutions, to a theatre at the Lincoln Center, etcetera.

But then there was the other piece of his legacy, which was his political giving and his role as kind of the sidekick to his brother Charles Koch in their political activities, which date back to the '70s.

David Koch survived a plane crash back in 1991. And a lot of people died in that crash. Then the next year he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. How do you think those two experiences shaped how he lived his life for the next almost three decades? 

At that point, he was unmarried. He was a playboy type in New York City known for throwing these hedonistic parties in the Hamptons and at his place in Aspen.

Directly after these [events], he ends up getting married and has three children. And you sort of see him step up his philanthropic giving, especially in the medical research area. 

It seems like these events really fuelled David Koch the philanthropist. 

You mentioned his arch conservatism. He and his brother are particularly known for that. I mean really seen as, I guess, villains by the progressive left in the United States. What were the roots of their beliefs? 

It really goes back to their father, who formed what is now today Koch Industries. And he was actually a founding member of the John Birch Society, sort of an anti-communist organization in the United States. A very right-wing group.

They inherited their beliefs from their father — basically strong, free-market views, limited government. I mean, you know, David Koch ran for vice-president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980.

The platform at that point was calling for the abolishment of social security, Medicaid, Medicare, shutting down the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Education, a variety of other government agencies. So their beliefs are really very, very limited government to the point of almost no government at all. 

We are told that both brothers ... were worth an estimated $58 billion dollars US each. What was the source of that wealth? 

Koch Industries, which is the second largest private corporation in the United States. 

It touches people's lives every day in ways that you could scarcely imagine. And I'm talking, you know, anything from gas to steak to Stainmaster carpet to spandex to building materials to paper.

You really can't go through a day without encountering one of their products. 

A lot of people today are talking about their impact on the discussion about climate change. 

For many years, both brothers helped to fund groups that have sowed skepticism about climate change.

There are a lot of stories about how secretive they were — that they tried to shut down people who were writing about them. You were among those people. 

Again, this is something that traces back to their father. He did not think ... anything good could come from it. And these four brothers also had a very bitter falling out in the 1980s involving private detectives and all sorts of scandal. And I think that they were very shy about that. 

In terms of their company, it also sort of operated based on secrecy and that was sort of their competitive advantage in certain ways. 

It's interesting reading, of course, the different characterizations of David Koch today. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, describing him as a compassionate philanthropist, successful businessman and proud American. On the other hand, you have someone like the filmmaker Adam Bast [saying that] calling him a philanthropist is like calling Hannibal Lecter a chef. These are divisive figures. What do you see as David Koch's ongoing legacy? 

That's why I sort of say there were two David Kochs. Because there were very much two sides to his giving. He was very much a philanthropist. He did give hundreds of millions to cancer research and causes like that. 

He also channeled millions into a variety of right-wing causes.

I don't think it's cut and dry to render his legacy to either being one of good or evil, as his progressive detractors would like to portray it.

In the end, he was just a man.

Written by Sarah Jackson and Sheena Goodyear with files from The Associated Press. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.