He went on to say that he never accepted a legal bribe and has always been steadfast in his totally honest beliefs.
Let’s be real here: lobbying is, for all intents and purposes except in a legal sense for the US, a legal bribe. It’s a corporation (read: the CEO or somebody on the executive board) paying a politician to take whatever fuck position the corporate interest wants. The fact that politicians basically dress up bribes as literally anything except a bribe is disingenuous and disgusting because they can just go “oh, that wasn’t a bribe that was a uhhhh - checks notes - ‘donation to my SuperPAC’,” and somehow that is ok.
Shit like this is what happens when you let greedy rich fucks have power over legislation.