Dem on Trump transparency: 'If you want privacy, don't go into politics'

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/329240-top-dem-on-trump-transparency-if-you-want-privacy-dont-go-into-politics

Dem on Trump transparency: 'If you want privacy, don't go into politics'
By Nikita Vladimirov - 04/18/17 09:52 AM EDT


Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) knocked the White House's public disclosure practices on Monday, saying that President Trump needs to learn there's little privacy in politics.

“Sometimes I think {President Trump} doesn’t understand the line between being a private businessman and serving the public trust, and he thinks he can just run his life the same way he’s done for 50 years,” Cummings said, according to The New York Times.

“But this is about the public trust. If you want to get rich, don’t get into politics. I know that. If you want privacy, don’t go into politics. He needs to learn that,” the lawmaker added.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer last week announced that the Trump administration would not release visitor logs for the West Wing, ending a practice started by the Obama administration.

“It's about following the law,” Spicer said. “We're following the law as both the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act prescribe it. It's the same policy that every administration had up until the Obama administration."

The White House maintained that “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually” justifies its position on keeping the records secret.

Spicer on Monday also said that Trump still cannot release his tax returns because he is under an IRS audit.

[unblock]

1. hell, he crossed the line quite a while ago from "businessman" to "celebrity"

and if you want privacy, don't seek fame at all.

[Sunlei]

2. Americans have a right to observe our elected government at work. Who politicians allow into OUR WH

is public information.

We DEMAND to know exactly what lobbyists, what outside non-elected people are 'visiting' our elected "public servants".

[gratuitous]

3. Trump can release his tax returns at any time

Unlike Obama's birth certificate, which is the property of the State of Hawai'i, Trump's tax returns are wholly his property. He can release them anytime he likes, audit or no audit. Also, we have no official word from the IRS that he's being audited. Of course, the IRS is forbidden by law to comment publicly on who is being audited, so this reason for not releasing the returns is the self-serving excuse of a fraud. The public and the popular media are not obliged to believe a word of it.