Opinion: If Trump is a national emergency, it’s time for Democrats to act like it
President Trump speaks in Lima, Ohio, on Wednesday. By Greg Sargent Greg Sargent Opinion writer covering national politics Email Bio Follow Opinion writer March 21 at 10:35 AM An odd disconnect has opened up in the Democratic approach to President Trump. On the one hand, Democrats rhetorically treat his presidency as a rolling national emergency, as an existential threat to our democracy.
“Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany,” Clyburn told NBC News, drawing an implicit comparison to Trump by musing on Hitler’s success in “discrediting institutions.” Clyburn warned that if we are too complacent about Trump, “we are asking for dire consequences." Democrats will invoke an old legal provision that empowers tax-writing committees to request any individual’s tax returns from the Treasury Department. Thus, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee are gearing up to request the returns of Individual-1. The Treasury Department has said it will block this request, which will trigger a legal battle.
Rep. Bill Pascrell , a member of Ways and Means, is turning up the heat on his colleagues. In a statement emailed to me, Pascrell said accessing Trump’s business and personal returns is essential to determining the “extent of any crimes” he may have committed, and “how far his conflicts go." Trump’s refusal to release his returns is like the Original Sin of the very sort of institutional degradation that Democrats regularly lament. Getting access to them would illuminate the scale of those degradations, which are ongoing. Yet this whole process has been saturated with an aura of tentativeness that is hard to fathom.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Opinion | Trump’s 'national emergency' just a symptom of Congressional impotenceOpinion | Steve Vladeck: 'We have gradually but ineluctably transitioned from the separation of powers to the separation of parties.' - NBCNewsTHINK
Read more »
Opinion | It’s time for Australia and New Zealand to confront their white nationalist historiesUnconscionable acts of violence are the inevitable result of relentless anti-immigrant invective — invective that lives in both the past and the present.
Read more »
Opinion | It’s time for Democrats to make a huge 2020 choice. (Republicans, too.)Meanwhile, Beto's in; stand by for the first presidential campaign album to go double platinum
Read more »
Opinion | Women are hooked on 'Shrill' because it's a loving look at our real livesOpinion | Lux Alptraum: Hulu's 'Shrill' showcases Aidy Bryant in the most relatable coming-of-age story yet, and women are hooked. - NBCNewsTHINK
Read more »
Here's how Congress can override Donald Trump's veto on resolution terminating national emergency declarationIn a bipartisan rebuke, the Senate passed a resolution 59-41 terminating his emergency declaration on Thursday.
Read more »
Romney and other Republicans buck Trump on national emergencyThe Senate is set to pass a resolution overturning the president’s border emergency in a major rebuke to Trump.
Read more »