CNN’s Pamela Brown Presses James Comer Over Lack of Trump Investigations

CNN’s Pamela Brown sparred with House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) Monday over whether he should investigate allegations that President Donald Trump is profiting off of the presidency.

“I want to ask about Fourth of July coming up, America’s 250th anniversary,” Brown began on The Situation Room. “Critics say that Trump is trying to profit off of this, selling merchandise, selling coins for thousands of dollars. He created a commission, an alternative commission, Freedom 250, where critics say donors can pay a large amount of money to gain access to the president. Is this something you would be willing to investigate as the head of oversight, whether the president is profiting off of the presidency, the president and his family?”

“Well, there’s a there’s a story almost on a weekly basis that would, you know, imply that there’s some some profiteering taking place from members of the president’s family,” Comer said. “But, you know, they said, well, you need to investigate. Well, you reported it. We investigated —”

“So, Because it’s transparent — Okay, so hold on. Let me just make sure I understand,” Brown interrupted. “So, because they’re open about it, it’s okay, but if they’re not open about it, it’s not okay.”

COMER: I wanted to pass ethics — I had an ethics bill with Katie Porter. It was a bipartisan ethics bill last Congress and Jamie Raskin killed it because he thought Kamala Harris was going to be president, and we were trying to do something nefarious to her.

BROWN: Okay —

COMER: I think that there needs to be — There’s nothing I’ve seen that President Trump or his family done illegal. If people don’t like it, I think that’s a political debate. And I think that’s something that, you know, voters can decide at the polls. But I think —

BROWN: But the bottom line is you won’t investigate, correct? Just to make sure —

COMER: Well, everything that — you know the deals that they’re in! You may not like them. I’ve not seen any law that says anything’s illegal. Now, do I like them? I think that that answer is pretty clear —

BROWN: But you previously raised concerns about influence peddling in the past administration. So, you previously raised those concerns. I just wondered if you had the same concerns. We have to run, but I’ll I’ll give you the final word here.

COMER: Yeah, well, the concerns with [Joe] Biden because he said he wasn’t taking money from China and these other countries. When we subpoenaed the bank records, they were. So, Biden said he wasn’t doing this stuff. Trump acknowledges that he is. Now, should some of this be illegal? I —

“And just to be clear, Biden has said no wrongdoing. Have to put that out there. Trump has also said — And let me just be clear, the president is not subjected to conflict of interest laws in the way that others are,” she noted.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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