It's all about the money

On this last day of July, I am still wasting a lot of thought time on Donald Trump.  I am so worried about our country.

The other night on the Rachel Maddow show, Jamie Raskin said some things that really rang true. I looked up the transcript:


REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD):  A lot of people believe we`ve been in an

impeachment inquiry ever since we started looking into potential high

crimes and misdemeanors and the misconduct of the executive branch.  Other

people thinking impeachment query doesn`t begin until you actually have

articles of impeachment.  I would say we are in an impeachment

investigation.

RASKIN:  Sure, we were just confronted with overwhelming evidence of high

crimes and misdemeanors 10 episodes of obstruction of justice presidential

candidate is campaign welcoming with open arms foreign interference in our

presidential election.  You know, if Bill Clinton can be impeached for

telling one lie about sex, that`s low crimes and misdemeanors.  This is in

the category of high crimes and misdemeanors, and we`re investigating it

and we`re trying to figure out whether these are high crimes and

misdemeanors that justify impeachment. 

But I would say that our investigated future involves a lot of other

issues.  You know, I think the American public has the sense that money is

really at the heart of the Trump White House and he has essentially

converted the presidency into an instrument of self enrichment a money-

making enterprise basically for himself and his business and his friends,

and that`s what the whole federal government has turned into.

And so, we need to investigate whether the foreign Emoluments Clause,

Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 has been violated and is being violated

every day.  There have been reports that different foreign governments have

basically been filling Donald Trump`s pockets through the Trump hotel,

through the office tower, through the golf courses.  There`s the domestic

Emoluments Clause which says that he`s limited to receiving his salary.  We

can`t increase it, we can`t decrease it.  And yet every time they go to

Mar-a-Lago, for example, they`re spending $75,000 or $100,000 that goes

directly from federal government agencies and departments to the Trump

hotel. 

So, that I would say should be the beginning of following the money but we

remember that Donald Trump said that he would basically blow up the special

counsel investigation if they looked at his finances.  He`s not going to be

able to hamstring.  The U.S. Congress in the same way.  We`re going to get

to the bottom of all of it.