On Tuesday, the White House deputy press secretary appeared on Fox News to discuss Trump’s tax returns and the missed subpoena deadline to turn them over to the House Judiciary Committee. The penalty for refusing a congressional subpoena request is, for anyone else, a criminal act, but Trump is digging in his heels.
On Fox News, White House spox Hogan Gidley says the Trump administration won't comply with deadline imposed by House Ways and Means chair to turn over Trump's tax returns by 5pm today pic.twitter.com/NPEocZVIHO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 23, 2019
The fight for Trump’s tax returns has continued on for over two years but escalated after Democrats won a sweeping majority in the House of Representatives. In order to determine where Trump’s loyalties lie since he’s failed to do what every other president has done by severing his foreign and domestic business ties, those tax returns have become more crucial to House investigations over time.
Trump, however, continues to hide them. During Gidley’s appearance on Fox News Tuesday, he defended Trump’s decisions to do so. According to The New York Times:
‘Asked about the April 23 deadline in an interview on Fox News, Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, signaled that Mr. Trump was girding for a protracted fight over his returns. Earlier this month, Richard E. Neal, the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, formally requested from the Internal Revenue Service six years’ worth of the president’s personal and business tax returns, but so far the Treasury Department has said it needs more time to respond.’
Gidley, who famously argued with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about whether the president was proven to have lied in the Mueller report, pushed Trump’s lie that he is unable to release his returns while under audit.
‘As I understand it, the president’s pretty clear. Once he’s out of audit he’ll think about doing it, but he’s not inclined to do so at this time.’
"Jerry Nadler is irrelevant in this situation. The American people now know that regardless of what the Democrats were saying about the President, lies that they were telling with zero evidence and zero proof, now he wants to go deeper. When does this ever stop?"—@hogangidley45 pic.twitter.com/okTE0D9y1d
— GOP (@GOP) April 19, 2019
He then shifted to Trump’s other most popular defense of everything he does: it doesn’t matter because he won an election in 2016. The voters, according to Trump and Gidley, don’t care if Trump is a liar, a cheater, and controlled financially by hostile foreign governments. They like his racist rhetoric, so he’s above the law.
‘It’s already been litigated in the court of public opinion and in the election. The president won it fairly and squarely. He’s the president, and no one cares about ridiculous charges about tax returns and all types of other things Democrats are doubling down on today.’
WH spokesman: Trump is 'not inclined' to turn over tax returns on Democrats' deadline: White House spokesman Hogan Gidley on Tuesday reiterated that President Trump does not want to turn over his tax returns… https://t.co/2TZ4xzLLrY #ImpeachTrump #ImpeachKavanaugh #TheResistance pic.twitter.com/HT7c9TOwr3
— Patrick (@cahulaan) April 23, 2019
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
