Donald Trump has weathered all kinds of storms during his brief but eventful time as a politician, but the latest from his most powerful opponents might actually be a serious threat to his chances of actually being inaugurated. Democrats in the House Oversight Committee have thrown down the gauntlet and demanded that Trump finally release his tax returns.
The committee also plans on starting a comprehensive investigation into Trump’s financial holdings, as well as potential conflicts of interest that may arise from them. In a letter to Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), democrats have made their concerns crystal clear.
The situation is ominous. Two weeks after Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) drafted and sent a letter to Rep. Chaffetz on the topic of the need to investigate Trump’s financial holdings, the latter has still not responded or taken action in spite of enormous pressure from Congress and the American public to do so. From the House Democrats’ letter:
Since Ranking Member Cummings sent his letter, Americans across the country have flooded our Committee’s offices with thousands of calls in strong support of this investigation, jamming our phone lines with more calls than we have ever received in response to any other issue. At the same time, during this two-week period, troubling new revelations about Mr. Trump’s actions – as well as those of his family members and business associates – have made the need for robust congressional oversight even more urgent. For these reasons, we are now all writing to you in support of Ranking Member Cummings’ request, and we ask that the Oversight Committee begin its work as soon as possible.
Rep. Chaffetz and many of his colleagues pledged to treat Trump with the same professional scrutiny they would apply to any other candidate. Given the last 8 years, which the GOP dedicated to aggressively obstructing President Obama and investigating far-right conspiracy theories against him, this would be a tall order to fill. But Democratic members of Congress, as well as the American people would probably settle for even a basic level of professionalism.
Unfortunately, the Democrat’s letter makes clear what we’ve all been seeing for the last couple of weeks. Trump has consistently refused all calls for transparency, and the GOP plans to stand by and let him have his way, in the interest of ramming their agenda down the throats of a country that, for the most part, doesn’t want it.
Mr. Trump has exhibited a shocking level of disdain for legitimate bipartisan concerns about his conflicts of INTEREST. For example, during an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump stated, “The law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”Of course, this statement is incorrect. Mr. Trump can – and already does – have obvious conflicts of interest between his widespread global business interests and his Constitutional obligations as president.
The letter goes on to expound the sheer depth of Trump’s potential conflicts of interest in his global holdings and decries the recklessness of permitting him to have his children run the company during his tenure as president.
It’s highly unlikely that a man so committed to having it his way at any cost is going to bend over and do whatever the establishment tells him to. We’ll probably see this problem crop up over and over in the next four years. But the Democrats aren’t going to back down, and it will likely be a contentious term for the mogul-turned-politician. The letters spell this message out in bright neon letters, and also lay a foundation for there to be follow-up consequences to any radical or dangerous decisions Trump might make as POTUS.
Fortunately, House Democrats have the option of investigating The Donald on their own, and it’s highly likely they’ll turn up something damning enough that even the GOP won’t be able to ignore it. If they don’t, the next election is in 2018. If House Republicans won’t do their jobs, it’s up to citizens to force them to get new ones.
Featured image courtesy of Alex Wong on Getty Images. All rights reserved. Image has been modified from its original form.
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