Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is demanding that Donald Trump return the $7.8M that foreign governments gave him while he was President, claiming he violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
"Your acceptance of foreign emoluments while in office was a stunning violation of the U.S. Constitution — and a profound betrayal of the interests of the United States and the trust of the American people," he wrote in a letter to Trump.
MAGA acolytes in Congress were quick to jump to the defense of their leader. At an Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) argued with Raskin, claiming there is a real exception to the foreign emoluments clause.
Raskin came prepared. "There's no international real estate syndicate exception to the foreign emoluments clause, Mr. Donald," he said. "And also, I will take you up on your challenge to see whether the Trump Hotel in Washington, the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, the Trump Hotel on Fifth Avenue, the Trump Hotel at U.N. Plaza, the four of the more than 500 businesses that we got documentation for, whether they actually had the same level of business coming from Saudi Arabia, the communist bureaucrats of China — who were the leading spenders, you know, if you've read our report — the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, India, Egypt, and so on. We will make that comparison about what was done before if you get the chairman to call off the ban on further documents."
Donalds apparently thought the appropriate response was to ask, "Have you ever stayed at a Trump Hotel, Mr. Raskin?"
"No, and I never would stay at a Trump Hotel," replied Raskin. "I've got too much self-respect and concern for hygiene."
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