Big companies distanced themselves from a Washington, D.C., consultant and Trump ally who launched a vulgar attack on Sen. Kamala Harris during the vice presidential debate Wednesday night.
Harlan Hill, an advocate of President Donald Trump’s, is the head of the Logan Circle Group. The website of the company says it is a “boutique public relations and political consulting firm” and lists a slew of what appear to be clients under a title of “Trusted by the best.”
Corporate giants such as American Airlines and AT&T are among those listed. There are also political organizations, including the Trump campaign and the House campaign of California Republican Darrell Issa.
Hill, who had been a frequent guest on Fox News, called Harris a vulgar name on Twitter on Wednesday.
“Kamala Harris comes off as such an insufferable lying b—-. Sorry, it’s just true,” Hill tweeted. He initially did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
After publication of the story, Hill said he has done work for both AT&T and American Airlines, either directly or through what he calls “consulting partners.”
“In my 10 years in consulting, I have done work for all of the companies mentioned on the Logan Circle Group websites — either directly or thru consulting partners — when I’m released from our NDAs, I will be happy to discuss the specifics of these campaigns,” Hill told CNBC.
Hill will no longer be allowed to appear on Fox News, the network said Thursday.
Both American Airlines and AT&T distanced themselves from him on Thursday and demanded he stop using their names and logo on his website.
“We have found no record of this person working for us, and he certainly never will in the future. We have contacted him and demanded he remove our name and logo from his website,” Jim Greer, a spokesman for AT&T, told CNBC.
American Airlines told CNBC that it has found no record of working with Hill. Anti-Trump Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt retweeted Hill’s tweet about Harris, asking AT&T and American Airlines whether they were comfortable with Hill representing him. “You are right,” the airline tweeted from its account. “We won’t tolerate it. We just told Mr. Hill to stop using our name & logo. He doesn’t represent us & never will.”
Hill also has seen pushback from other groups that his website says he has ties with.
Child Justice, a nonprofit organization that, according to its website, provides “pro bono legal services to protect children ‘lost in the system’ after exposure to family violence, physical/sexual abuse, substance addictions or neglect” is also on Hill’s company website as an organization that trusts him.
The executive director of the group, Eileen King, told CNBC that the group hired Hill years ago to help it build a new website but he hasn’t done any work for it since.
After being informed of Hill attacking Harris, King said her group may consider asking him to now remove its name from his website entirely. Further, she added, the work he did on the website wasn’t great.
“It was kind of eh. Nothing horrible. Nothing too great. I don’t think he had any particular interest or sympathy with our cause,” she said.
Source: Business - cnbc.com
