My non-profit organization, American Family Voices, joined Americans for Tax Fairness, the Tax March, CAP Action, and Public Citizen on Tax Day to demand that IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig release Donald Trump's tax returns. You can watch video of my speech here, but the gist is that the brazen business promotion we've seen from Trump, Melania, Ivanka, and Jared using public platforms, combined with a well-documented history of tax fraud, requires Congressional oversight. Seems like a no-brainer, but then again there's few brains to go around in the Republican Party.
Later in the week, we joined in the call for the Department of Justice to release the full, un-redacted Mueller report to Congress, with some fun memes pulling quotes from the report. I, as I'm sure many of you, particularly enjoyed reading that after learning that a special counsel had been appointed, Trump said, "This is the end of my presidency. I'm fucked." ...Fingers crossed!
What we do know in the redacted version of the Mueller report is plenty damning for Trump, but of course timid Democrats are advising to investigate further and wait to vote him out of office, fearing that an impeachment trial will be a replay of Bill Clinton. These are not analogous situations, though. Impeachment over a blow job ain't the same thing as impeachment over collaborating with Russians to hack an election and then obstructing justice to cover it up.
Impeachment is a moral imperative, regardless of political outcomes, but timidity is also bad politics. It makes Democrats look weak, demotivates base voters, and telegraphs to Republicans that their unprecedented levels of corruption will be tolerated. Just because the GOP Senate is unlikely to budge is not a reason not to act. Let's remember that Republicans have voted more than 70 times to repeal or amend Obamacare, and while they did not succeed in repeal, they did reap major political victories in motivating their base to take the House, Senate, and presidency.
Let's hope that Democrats heed Elizabeth Warren's call to impeach. If Dems aren't willing to take on Trump when his criminality has been laid bare, who will be? Perhaps the only creature who can defeat this slimy swamp monster is a slimy sea monster... Release the Kraken!
