National Football League Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders has teamed up with the Koch brothers, two conservative billionaires that have been the focus of many liberal attacks, to create Prime 5, an initiative designed to help at-risk families in the Dallas area.
According to a report by USA Today, Prime 5 is a project of two existing Koch-backed nonprofits in and around Dallas. The $21 million initiative will help build young entrepreneurs, reduce gang violence, tackle personal debt and the breakdown of the family, work to improve education and fight addiction.
At an event in Colorado Springs in which Sanders hoped to raise funds for Prime 5, he lauded David and Charles Koch for their commitment to battling poverty and said many of the attacks directed at the Kochs are unfair.
"When you're someone of status and significant wealth, there's a tremendous expectation, and it's not easy to fulfill all those expectations," Sanders said, according to the Washington Examiner.
“We are committed to helping people improve their lives," Sanders said of the initiative. "This is an opportunity to provoke real change in our community and provide effective assistance to those who live in constant struggle."
Sanders was asked if he had any reservations about being affiliated with the Koch brothers, to which Sanders said, “None whatsoever.”
The Koch brothers, who have given countless millions to conservative causes and candidates, have often been maligned by liberal organizations and activists.
One article published by the left-wing Media Matters, titled “Myths and Facts About the Koch Brothers,” says it’s a “fact” the “Kochs push an extreme agenda.”
In 2014, Rolling Stone published a massive hit piece on the Koch brothers titled “Inside the Koch Brothers’ Toxic Empire,” in which the author wrote, “The Koch brothers get richer as the costs of what Koch destroys are foisted on the rest of us – in the form of ill health, foul water and a climate crisis that threatens life as we know it on this planet.”
Sanders said those views are dead wrong.
"You talk about a family that has one desire: to make this country a better place," Sanders said. "To level the playing field, to inspire, encourage, motivate. And that's what they do, and that's who they are, and I'm thankful to be partnered with them."
Justin Haskins
