Holding Politicians Accountable
This week, Every Voice and our partners have launched a campaign to #FixDemocracyNow - encouraging candidates across the country to champion policies to reduce the power of big money, guarantee the right to vote, and ending partisan gerrymandering.
Tweet of the day, on Trump’s failure to sell off his businesses and prevent conflicts of interest.
First, House Republicans attacked the Office of Congressional Ethics. Then, Senate Republicans tried to ram through Trump’s nominees before they were cleared of conflicts of interest. And now, they’re attacking another ethics office in government. What are they trying to hide?
Appointing big donors and Wall Street-types to your administration isn’t draining the swamp, it’s feeding the alligators.
President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has apparently admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses, or their families.
Trump’s vast web of conflicts: A user’s guide
Donald Trump’s new hires should brace themselves for a full immersion in government ethics school. They’re going to need it given the president-elect’s sprawling business empire and his lack of interest in selling off his companies and properties outright.
Donald Trump said he’d “drain the swamp” in Washington, but so far he’s done nothing but hired lobbyists for his transition team, considered big donors for his cabinet, and done nothing to prevent his administration from being mired in conflict-of-interest scandals with his businesses. Keep track of it all with our new Tumblr: http://trumpsswamp.tumblr.com/
All Talk and No Action
Donald Trump started his day Thursday with a speech at the American Legion, where he said, “Government access and favors will no longer be for sale."
As Trump continues to talk about money’s influence in politics, several stories from the same day as that speech show that he’s become a status quo politician when it comes to our broken campaign finance system, while at the same time offering zero policy proposals to fix the problems he criticizes.
- The Washington Post published a story on Trump seeking and using advice from his big donors.
- In this story about the state of Trump’s campaign, Politico reported that Trump donors are teasing policy influence to secure donations: "Doug Deason, the son of Texas billionaire Darwin Deason, tried to persuade Charles Koch to have a meeting with the nominee. In an interview, Deason recalled telling Koch that he could influence Trump’s policies.”
- The Wall Street Journal reported that his VP, Mike Pence, will attend a fundraiser with a bunch of Washington lobbyists. In February, Trump said of the ads attacking him in the primary: “These are special interests, folks. These are lobbyists. These are people that don’t necessarily love our country.”
- He announced that the former head of Citizens United, of Citizens United v. FEC, would be his deputy campaign manager. Immediately before, David Bossie was leading a Trump-aligned super PAC–the kind of groups he has called “a disaster.” Bossie was recruited for that role by Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s current campaign manager.
- It was revealed that his donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi–timed coincidentally with her investigation into whether she should investigate Trump University–broke IRS rules and he was required to pay a $2,500 penalty.
We’ve sent letters to the Trump campaign suggesting some policies to adopt on this front, but we haven’t heard anything. He could look at Hillary Clinton’s proposal for inspiration too.
Get You A Man Who Can Do Both
Last Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said this about news stories about the Clinton Foundation and its donors seeking access with Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State:
“We must get to the bottom of what looks like a pay-to-play scheme.”
This morning, just six days later, Chris Christie is asking for $5,000 to give donors an “inside look” at the transition process for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign:
Cash for access to the Trump transition effort – Gov. Chris Christie is hosting an intimate, 40-person “look inside” the transition effort, but it’ll cost you. The price tag: $5,000 per person. The invitation, which went out this week, invites a small number of Republican insiders to the Bernard’s Inn in Bernards, New Jersey, for the Sept. 15 event, which will run from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. “This will be an inside look on the work underway on planning for the transition,” the invitation reads.