Arizona Democratic Candidates offer their views on Republicans enabling Trump’s Defiance of the Emoluments Clause.

“To play, you have to stay.”

“The message is clear from this Trump’s administration/marketing team, “to play you have to stay” at one of Trump’s garish inns.  Staying at Trump Lodge gets you heard – at least several conservative groups hoping to curry favor with the hotelier perceive.  And, staying at the inn helps members of the administration keep their job.  I guess they all forgot the ultimate “boss” is the American taxpayer.”  

“Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers wrote about the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses:

One of the weak sides of republics, among their numerous advantages, is that they afford too easy an inlet to foreign corruption.  To counter this “foreign corruption” the Constitution Convention worded the clause in such a way as to act as a catch-all for any attempts by foreign governments to influence state or municipal policies through gifts or titles.”

Federalist No. 22

“Our Constitution actually has two Emolument’s Clauses, The Foreign Emoluments Clause at Art. I, § 9, cl. 8 and the Domestic Emoluments Clause at Art. II, § 1, Cl. 7stating,”

“The President shall … receive Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States or any of them…

“A public official, most especially the President of the United States, is not supposed to directly financially benefit from the office.  That’s why all other Presidents have either liquidated any asset that could benefit from them being in the office or put them in a blind trust.  Not only would they not benefit from their public decisions, but could know it.”

“Trump’s welcoming the extra business claiming his overblown, tacky, and tasteless lobbies “are the best” shows he never wanted to “drain the swamp,” he wanted to be Swamp King.”

“Conversely, we could look at the groups currying favor with this President as exercising suck-up stupidity.  If you want to spend all your money to stay in an overpriced hotel to favor a President who cares less about your issue than his own ego and profit, then you get what you pay for.  You are not effectively advancing your agenda.  Given what most of the country thinks about these agendas, such as the Christian Right’s, that is actually a good thing.”

“Sucking-up is expensive and ineffective, especially with the Swamp King.”  

2020 Congressional District Five Candidate Joan Greene

“The GOP, including my opponent (Andy Biggs,) have told us the Constitution and being  ‘fiscally conservative’ is now meaningless to them.

1)    Emolument Clause – Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution.

2)    Using taxpayer-funded dollars to fund Trump’s domestic and foreign properties, especially by our military, is not only egregious but put our brave men and women in harm’s way 

3)    The spending of taxpayer dollars, not only lines Trump’s pockets but continues to add to our deficit.

It is time we replace the corrupt GOP with people who will work for our National Security and the taxpayers.

“The White House not only fails to follow standard practices but no matter what Trump, Pence and their cohorts do, David Schweikert fails to speak out against corrupt and inappropriate actions by the White House. We all know it is common practice in the business, political and legal world to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Mr. Schweikert fails to represent our interests by using his position to support the White House rather than hold the President accountable under the checks and balances afforded within the Constitution.”

This latest snubbing of constitutional and political norms that have been solidified over the last 243 years by this President and his party is breathtaking.

In many ways, this new reality is the result of the rotting of the Party of Lincoln over the last 27 years.

Presidents should not profit from the Presidency while they hold the office.

As the Democratic Candidates stated, to allow this creates a situation where the influence to the Presidency is available to the highest bidder.

To let the Popular Vote Loser and his family continue to profit from the Presidency would truly create a situation where the phrase “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” no longer has meaning.

Republicans should stop enabling this defiance of the Constitution and start acting like patriots.

If they do not, voters have yet another reason to chart a different course for the country when voting in November 2020.

Democrats, in order to give the people something to believe in and turn out to vote for, would do well to further investigate this, and if necessary, launch impeachment proceedings if it is revealed high crimes and misdemeanors were indeed committed, to show that no one is above the law or the Constitution.