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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGOP blocks probe of Mike Pence's trip to Ireland after VP spent $600,000 on limousine rides...
https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/gop-blocks-probe-of-mike-pences-trip-to-ireland-after-vp-spent-600000-on-limousine-rides-so-he-could-stay-at-trumps-resort/?fbclid=IwAR1OJ5FoK5PFr4VDEyWM8STnbsS8n9NtBEwC3B-H31oJs2LY5700RqfKswo#.XYJDRSmSdxY.facebookGOP blocks probe of Mike Pences trip to Ireland after VP spent $600,000 on limousine rides so he could stay at Trumps resort
Written by Sophia Tesfaye / Salon September 18, 2019
Vice President Mike Pences trip to Ireland or more precisely his curious stay at one of President Trumps hotels has prompted multiple congressional probes. But the Democrat-led oversight investigations have already drawn complaints and pushback from Trumps loudest Republican defenders on Capitol Hill, including the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
Democrats in both the House of Representatives and Senate have sent official letters of inquiry to the vice presidents office seeking specific information on the costs of Pences recent stay at Trump International Golf Club in Doonbeg, Ireland. They have imposed a Sept. 19 deadline for the administration and the Trump Organization to turn over relevant documents. Democrats have raised concerns that Pences stay at Trumps resort could have violated the emoluments clause in the Constitution. Theyve asked for details like the cost of the stay, Secret Service protection, and comparable rates for hotels nearby as well as across the country in Dublin, where Pence held meetings with Irish officials and business leaders.
The vice presidents decision to stay at Trumps resort can hardly be defended as one of convenience, as Pence previously suggested. Doonbeg is in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland, nearly a four-hour drive from most of Pences scheduled meetings in Dublin. According to an analysis by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Pences stay cost taxpayers $599,454.36 in limousine service alone.
snip//
Republicans in Congress are clearly running interference for the Trump administration on all fronts, in a fashion that goes well beyond Beltway mantras about politics as usual. Congress is supposed to perform critical oversight of the executive branch. Democrats havent directed the public into the streets over this stunning abdication of constitutional duty, which shows how ill-equipped our system is to handle outright corruption and also how bewildered the majority party has become by this unprecedented president.
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GOP blocks probe of Mike Pence's trip to Ireland after VP spent $600,000 on limousine rides... (Original Post)
babylonsister
Sep 2019
OP
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,345 posts)1. GOP -- the party of assault and corruption
Autumn
(45,082 posts)2. Can the House do it? An open hearing on it.
pecosbob
(7,538 posts)3. Misleading title
GOP can't 'block' any investigations originating in the House...even if their top weinie doesn't like what's being investigated. All they can do is refuse to show up or testify.
Edit...or try to make the proceedings into a circus.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)4. Alternet's headline doesn't quite match up with the story
I don't see where Republicans have blocked anything, and being in the minority in the House, they don't have that power at all. Yeah, Jim Jordan whined and puled about the request for information from Rep. Cummings' committee, but he can't block it. I fully expect the White House to stonewall the request, but the House GOP can go piss up a rope.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)7. +1 They would like to, but elections have consequences.
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)5. Good. Grief.
The law breaking is wearing me slick.
Why isnt this over yet?
gordianot
(15,238 posts)9. Why? Democracy and the Republic died in America November 9, 2016.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)8. Dooshbegg will fail even harder now - it's tainted with Trump/Pence stink