Page 55 - Self Dealing News Today

By lawyers in a deposition, which may or may not be videotaped and may or may not be released. i would think they would want to clear the decks of this kind of thing. i dont think they want to have all these problems. im not sure they fully appreciate, as tim was just saying. how much of an issue this would become politically. it doesnt matter what the public thinks of this. members of congress and the media, i mean, everybody has an obligation to hold him accountable for potential conflicts of ...

Meeting in conversations where they are setting policy thats going to affect the business empire, that is the very definition of a conflict of interest and no getting around it. >> lets look at the law, david gregory, in terms of nepotism. they say a public official may not appoint a relative unless that individual appointed employed, promoted or advanced if they are in violation, basically, theyre not entitled to pay and money may not be paid from the treasury. is that how theyre getting around...

Donations that were alleged to have been made by the trump foundation and then you found out actually this charity had no record of their being a donation, later the trump foundation admitted that they had done self-dealing. they had violated irs regulations, violated the law. do you expect that things like this are going to continue to play out in the presidency? people are going to be looking at this and theres going to be a drip, drip, drip? >> of course. i think theyll be questions about for...

For it to be destroyed by some sort of a conflict of interest which is bound to arise when you have -- >> its hobbling him from the get-go unless its handled properly, david. >> right. without a question. and you cant have your daughter sitting in with a head of state as she did with prime minister abe and have your clothing line and other aspects of your business involved in japan and youre kind of tending to that. you have to have a real wall of separation. look, im with matt. i think these ar...

Business, as monica pointed out, shes got her own, you know, business interests which, you know, shes got to take into consideration. i mean, its no coincidence that when she gave the speech at the republican convention, she was wearing one of the dresses that then went on sale, you know, on "60 minutes," she wore a bracelet i guess that was up for sale, you know, within minutes. >> right. so she has business interests. she also has a brand interest and softening the edges. you were talking earl...

>> this is also not about voters perceptions and this is not about how people feel about this. this is about the institution. this is about how as president he or the office could be compromised. and there are laws on the books about self-dealing and business interests with regard to foreign affairs. so this becomes bigger than all that. this becomes a very big area for his staff and for others in congress. and in washington to be concerned about. >> especially given his criticism of hillary cli...

And you cant have your daughter sitting in with a head of state as she did with prime minister abe and have your clothing line and other aspects of your business involved in japan and youre kind of tending to that. you have to have a real wall of separation. look, im with matt. i think these are two children and a son-in-law who are very close advisers who know him, know his mind, whom he can trust. if he wants them there, thats fine. hes going to have to work so much harder than hes already wor...

With him that were going to get to policy when he is the president. right now, this is about courtesy. theoretically, you should be already having a policy and then everything you do from now through your presidency is moving forward on that. so this is a candidate who ran as im unpredictable, you are not going to know what you are going to get, which a lot of voters liked about him. when it comes to the world stage, unpredictability can be very dangerous. >> are we making too much out of this? ...

As im unpredictable, you are not going to know what you are going to get, which a lot of voters liked about him. when it comes to the world stage, unpredictability can be very dangerous. >> are we making too much out of this? >> no. i think the other thing that casts a shadow over every phone call he maches is the self-dealing. we know so many of the conversations he is having are with countries and leaders where there are massive trump corporate interests. this is where the trust that he hasnt ...

And corruption. evan, when you referred to donald trumps legitimacy and you refer to his corruption. as you see it on the landscape of trump activities today, how would you describe the corruption? >> clearly hes setting himself up to do a lot of self-dealing from the white house. thats what weve seen a lot of separation from his business empire and his role now as president or president-elect has not happened. he tells us it will happen. its important for it to happen. but with his children inv...