'Surprised it's not more': Ex-GOPer shrugs off Trump's $7.8M foreign profit report
A former Republican staffer for two House Speakers was shocked by Democrat's report accusing the Trump Organization of pulling in $7.8 million while former President Donald Trump was in office, but not for the reason one might expect.
"If you went down to the Trump hotel, it was the Star Wars bar of people trying to influence the Trump White House," Brendan Buck said on MSNBC Thursday. "I'm frankly surprised it's not more."
Buck skewered Trump — saying it was "stupid" for Trump to allow an appearance of impropriety by not divesting from his assets — but also the report which he called "somewhat weak sauce."
"I struggle to see anything that really is going to have a bombshell effect for Donald Trump," Buck said.
Buck, who managed communications conservative speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner, was responding to the House Oversight and Reform Committee's nearly 200-page report that covered two years of Trump's administration.
The former conservative communications strategist said he suspects House Democrats are "running interference" for President Joe Biden, who House Republicans have accused, without evidence, of corruptly accepting foreign cash.
I don't think they're at all the same thing," Buck said. "To be clear, they haven't proven anything against Joe Biden."
What rankled Buck was Trump's decision, as detailed in the report, to maintain personal ownership and control of all his businesses while in office.
"[Trump] should have divested," Buck said. "He should have figured out some way to put guard rails in place."
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner agreed, noting that while accepting cash from foreign governments may violate the Constitution, there is no criminal act without proof of quid pro quo.
"If he was doling out favors in exchange for that money that he was getting unconstitutionally from foreign governments, then you might see criminal conduct," Kirschner said.
Eric Trump, meanwhile, has said his father donated all profits to the U.S. Treasury.
See the full commentary in the video below or at the link here.
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