Pelosi: Trump’s tax returns are fair game if Democrats take House
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https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Pelosi-Trump-s-tax-returns-are-fair-game-if-13297954.php
Expect Democrats to immediately try to force President Trump to release his tax returns if they take back the House in November, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday.
Demanding the president’s tax returns “is one of the first things we’d do — that’s the easiest thing in the world. That’s nothing,” Pelosi told The Chronicle’s editorial board in an hour-long
interview.
Although a 1924 provision of the Internal Revenue Code gives certain congressional committees the right to request — and release — the tax records of even the president, it’s unlikely
Trump would surrender those documents without an all-out legal battle. He has refused to release his returns since he announced he was running for president, arguing first that he
was being audited and later that voters don’t care.
The GOP-led Congress has joined in keeping those records private, regularly voting down Democratic efforts to make Trump turn them over. Forcing Trump to release his returns would
not necessarily make them public, but would allow a Democratic-run congressional committee to decide whether there is information in those returns that needs to be investigated.
Whether that happens hinges on Democrats winning the House or the Senate. With the Nov. 6 election less than four weeks away, Pelosi sounded confident about both the House
Democrats’ chances and her own political future. “I believe we would win if the election was today,” she said. And although more than 50 Democratic candidates have said they
wouldn’t vote for Pelosi to lead the House, the San Francisco Democrat said, “I believe I will be speaker if we win.”
Releasing the president’s tax returns to a congressional committee would not be revenge for the way Trump and GOP leaders have treated the Democratic minority for the past two
years, but a simple matter of oversight by Congress, “a co-equal body of government,” Pelosi said. “We have to have the truth,” she said.
Payback isn’t going to be part of a Democratic-led House, Pelosi promised, pushing back against what she called the “pound of flesh crowd” of Democrats eager to repay Republicans
for every political slight and attack since Trump was elected.
“We will seek bipartisanship where we can,” Pelosi said. “One of the reasons we should win is that we’re not like them, and we’re not going to be like them.” The Democratic leader also
says she doesn’t have much choice. No matter what happens on election day, Trump is still going to be president and she will have to work with him. “We need to get a signature, which
requires some bipartisanship, some common ground,” Pelosi said, which she admitted wasn’t always easy.
“I, probably more than most people do, respect the office he serves in, probably more than he does,” she said. “But he is the president — we have to find our common ground. ... We
want to get results for the American people.” But that’s going to mean discussions and compromise, not surrender, Pelosi said. Democrats “will never negotiate away our values,” she s
aid.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Wouldn't actually make a difference anyways. Those who it would matter to already assume he's guilty of shady shit and those who need to be convinced won't.
Yeah, isn't Pelosi a big part of why the Democrats have been completely limp for years in their "opposition" to Republicans? Isn't she part of that whole corporate complex?
Over 50 Democratic congressional candidates say they won't support her but she'll still be Speaker. She's too savvy and skilled
Only little people pay taxes.
Those excuses have already been in the lexicon for years. Nothing will change with his tax returns made public other than people posting "told you so's" on social media.
They've always been fair game. Just the gop gives no fucks
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