Trump Is Corrupt And Republicans In Congress Are His Accomplices And Enablers

History will record Donald Trump as the most corrupt President since Warren Harding in the 1920s. From the petty, such as selling campaign hats as part of the Presidential response to a disaster, to the major, such as the unlimited access to Trump offered to those wealthy enough to pay the initiation fees at his clubs such as Mar-a-Lago or using his office to pursue business deals in China, Turkey, and, during the campaign at least, Russia, Trump is always looking to exploit his position of trust for personal gain.

But let's be clear. Trump has been and continues to be assisted in this corruption by the accomplices in the Republican party. Not only did they did put up with his racist rhetoric and sexist behavior during the election campaign, primarily to save their own skins, they are now engaged in active efforts to assist Trump's corruption.

A number of Republican members of Congress have abetted Trump's obstruction of justice. Devin Nunes and Richard Burr, respectively the heads of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, regurgitated the propaganda line from the White House that there was nothing to the Russian investigation. Nunes actions trying to show the Obama administration unmasked Trump campaign officials in order to push Trump's lie that Obama "tapped" his phones eventually forced him to theoretically resign as head of the committee. Even after that, Nunes apparently authorized staffers to go to the UK to try and "talk" with the author of the Russian dossier without notifying the rest of committee. Trey Gowdy has now taken up the effort to discredit that dossier and its author and twist the story to imply the FBI was spying on Trump.

Of course, the enabling of Trump's corruption goes beyond just abetting Trump's obstruction of justice in the Russian investigation. It extends to willfully doing nothing to restrain the President from continuing to violate the Emoluments Clause and restricting his massive conflicts of interest.

But the GOP is also taking active steps as well to help the President enrich himself. Earlier this week, House leaders refused to allow votes on multiple Democratic amendments that would prohibit taxpayer money from being spent at Trump properties. A classic example of the taxpayer money that is going into Trump's pocket is the over $60,000 the Secret Service has spent just on golf carts at Trump golf courses in order to protect the President.

A more egregious case of Republican complicity is the multiple refusals to even look at Trump's tax returns. Back in February, the House voted down a resolution to simply request Trump's tax returns. The resolution was defeated in a party line vote.  Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee also voted down a similar resolution on a party line vote. The committee took the vote in order to spare the rest of the Republican caucus from having to cast a similar vote to the one in February.

As Democrats have pointed out, Trump and his businesses will be significantly impacted by whatever tax "reform" (i.e. cut) that is passed. It might be nice for the American people to know just how much the President will gain from the change in the laws and how his particular position on specific items in the proposed changes will effect his income. Republicans would prefer that no one, not even themselves, know.

Trump and his family are enriching themselves at our expense. But always remember that they are only being allowed to do so by their criminal accomplices in the Republican party.