Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday turned the House Ways and Means Committee’s organizational meeting into an examination of the links between Moscow and the Trump administration—and possibly to President Trump himself—prompting Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, to exclaim “oh shit” during the proceedings.
The panel was considering an amendment from Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, to ask the treasury secretary to compel Trump to share 10 years worth of tax returns with the panel.
Doggett’s amendment, which failed on a party-line vote, stemmed from a letter Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., wrote Brady this month. The letter urged the committee chairman to avail himself of a law that gives Ways and Means and the Joint Committee on Taxation access to anyone’s tax returns to review in closed session with the option of making the information public—a law that Congress used in the ’70s to force President Nixon to share his returns, which revealed he had shortchanged the U.S. government hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On Monday, the Texas Republican said he thought doing so would be an abuse of power, a position he reiterated Tuesday.
Brady “strongly” opposed Doggett’s amendment because forcing Trump to turn over his tax returns to the Ways and Means Committee and the Committee on Joint Taxation would be a “return to the good old days” of when Washington “abused its power to punish its enemies,” he said.
During one of Pascrell’s impassioned turns at the microphone, Brady let slip “oh shit” in his Texas drawl, apparently in response to his unwillingness to move past the issue.
After warning Democrats several times that he would adjourn the panel and reconvene to finish approving the committee’s organizational plan for the 115th Congress if they persisted because they were running short on time, Brady adjourned the meeting, which is now set to resume this afternoon.
“It is important that we do our job, especially in light of what’s happened the last couple of days,” Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., said Tuesday, referring to revelations that the Justice Department warned the White House that former national security adviser Michael Flynn is vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.
“For us to try and brush this aside is a disservice” to the country, Thompson said. “It’s our responsibility that we do our job and look into this.”
Thompson and other Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee said the only way to ensure that Trump is not also vulnerable to Russian manipulation is to force him to turn over his tax returns.
“We will never see the president’s tax returns” either while he is in office or after he leaves, said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich. “The public needs to know, with this president who has had unusual investments…what potential conflicts there are involving his investments and activities” with respect to Russia or any other foreign government, and what influence those investments and past actions may have on his “future action” as president, Levin said.
“So before you stonewall this, I urge you think twice because if you do it today, you will only keep the issue more and more alive,” Levin warned Brady and his Republican colleagues.
Democrats warned their Republican colleagues “we’re not going away,” when it comes to pressing them over Trump’s possible conflicts of interest with respect to Russia.
The idea that Pascrell is “rummaging” through Trump’s affairs is ridiculous, he said in response to Brady’s comments Monday. “This is not willy-nilly. This is a serious attempt to get the truth for the American people,” he said, adding that Brady would decide whether to make whatever lawmakers find out public.
“We are right with the law,” Pascrell said, adding that he is “begging” Brady “because we’re not going away” but he would like the inquiry and request to be bipartisan.
If everybody’s tries to “cover this up, we’ll never get to the bottom of this,” Thompson said. “Who else is in a position to be blackmailed by the Russians? How high does this go?” he asked.
“Lord knows where this all leads,” exclaimed House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley, D-N.Y. “What does he have to hide?” he asked. “If the president’s not doing anything wrong, he has absolutely nothing to worry about.”
Crowley said that given Flynn is the second person to leave Trump’s political circle over questionable dealings with Russia, Republicans have to ask questions.
Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, stepped down after being accused of receiving millions of dollars to represent Russian interests in the U.S. and Ukraine.
“Somebody needs to stand up and challenge this White House,” he said. “If there’s nothing going on, they have nothing to be afraid of.”
After the meeting, Crowley said the Russian scandal does not end with Flynn. “It is becoming increasingly clear that President Trump is leading a very dysfunctional White House,” Crowley accused. “President Trump’s ties to both Russia and to Vladimir Putin and the situation that allowed a national security campaign advisor to feel so comfortable illegally discussing sanctions with the Russian government before President Trump took office are matters of national security.”
