Newt Gingrich suggests Kavanaugh may block the release of Trump's tax returns - Polidicks

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/newt-gingrich-trump-tax-returns_us_5bd25da6e4b0a8f17ef5ecb4 Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Thursday that if Democrats attempt to subpoena President Donald Trump’s tax returns after the midterm elections, the Republican party can find out if the bitter nomination battle of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was “worth it.” Gingrich, a Republican who served in the House for two decades, was speaking at a live event with The Washington Post on Thursday when moderator Karen Tumulty asked if the fight over Kavanaugh was worth the political fallout. The judge faced a chorus of opposition after he was accused by several women of sexual misconduct during his time as a student in high school and college, claims he vehemently denied. He was ultimately confirmed this month in a slim 50-48 vote. When Tumulty asked what would happen if a Democratic-controlled House demanded Trump’s tax returns, the former lawmaker alluded that the Kavanaugh fight was political from the outset and that the justice could be a key ally to help protect the president should that happen. “This is a billionaire who has fought lawsuits his entire career and he’s never noticed them. He doesn’t care. That’s why he has lawyers. So they can come at him from 100 levels ― he’ll just hire 100 lawyers,” Gingrich said. “I don’t think he has any fear of the Democrats.” He added that if the House requested Trump’s tax returns, the party would then “be trapped into appealing to the Supreme Court, and we’ll see if the Kavanaugh fight was worth it.” Democrats have reportedly been studying ways to obtain the president’s tax returns as the prospects of the party winning the House have crystalized. The New York Times reported earlier this month that lawmakers may try to use an obscure, century-old provision in the tax code to do so, but the demand may set up a legal fight that would likely make its way up to the Supreme Court. Gingrich has been a staunch ally of the president, but also said Thursday that he believes House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will likely become the chamber’s next speaker, putting the odds at “two out of three.” “I would say, first of all, Nancy Pelosi is a very smart, very tough person who has earned her position by just brute hard work, by applying her intelligence and by applying a network that has sustained her for a long time,” Gingrich said. “Anybody who thinks they’re going to outmaneuver her is up against somebody who has spent literally her lifetime… she’s been in this business forever.”

Get fucked, Newt.

Isn't Newt Gingrich responsible for the general "be a fucking asshole" strategy of the Republican party for the last decade and a half?

He led the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, Democrats had controlled Congress for about 40 years and the GOP won 54 seats in the House and 8 in the Senate. He started the current MO of opposing everything Democrats do

But it's already an open secret that Trump has never ever paid his taxes, especially ever since the New York Times story broke. Nothing has changed. So what could Newt possibly be worried about.... there wouldn't happen to be any shady donations from foreign businessmen with a distinctly russian accent, would there? Hm.....

let's destroy the legitimacy of the supreme court piece by piece, surely there can be no downsides.

Funny how John Roberts values his legacy (probably since he didn't expect to be Chief Justice) but if he doesn't play things very smoothly with Gorsuch and Kav on the bench he'll be known as the worst Chief Justice of all time for helping a traitorous moronic orange destroy the legitimacy of the court.

the law is pretty fucking clear congress has the authority to subpoena the tax returns of any individual, its not some interpreted power

And who would argue in a case of a dispute, you guessed it, SCOTUS.

Why even bother? At this point he could just call it fake news and be done with it. What could possibly be so bad for Trump in his tax returns that would be worse than the stuff he says on a daily basis? Does an average American have a higher trust in the IRS than any other institution for some reason? Or is the evidence of corruption there so damning that somehow even the "better Russian than democrat" crowd would revolt?

and we’ll see if the Kavanaugh fight was worth it.” It's this tidbit that's most telling to me. It's Newt Gingrich just throwing it out there that Kavanaugh was always, always, always gonna be someone picked to protect Trump and nothing more.

Kav's always been a partisan asshole. Someone said that Jeb Bush would have picked Kav over Gorsuch, it was the safer conservative choice.

there's going to need to be lots of jittery applesauce to interpret that the president his companies and all his family are above the law or that congress doesn't have the right to give themselves investigative privilages.