California Representative Maxine Waters vowed in an exclusive interview with Refinery 29 to subpoena Donald Trump’s bank records and tax records, and also pointed out what she’s working on with regard to her own agenda.
Trump’s Tax And Bank Records
Now that Democrats control the House of Representatives, it’s all but guaranteed that Trump’s bank and tax records will be brought before the chamber and analyzed. And 15-term representative Waters, as Chair of the Financial Services Committee, is the very person who has the power to make that happen. However, when asked directly about when or if that’s going to take place, Waters was quick to point out that all will take place in the context of a larger effort to understand what the Trump administration was up to before and during the 2016 election.
“We are going to call Donald Trump to task. We’re going to investigate. And we’re going to use the power that we now have to make sure that the American people understand how dangerous this president is.”
However, she declined to give a specific time-line, saying only that she is “working with” other chairpersons — of the Judiciary Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Ways and Means Committee — in order to subpoena all necessary records.
Maxine Waters demands closed-door Michael Cohen testimony be opened to the public https://t.co/jryvDSkOSF
— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 29, 2019
Is Impeachment Still On The Table?
Waters, like other Congressional Democrats, has been reticent to jump head-first into impeachment proceedings, instead preferring to focus on the party’s own agenda — as well as to wait for the Mueller investigation to run its course. But that’s not to say that Waters believes impeachment is off the table — quite the opposite, in fact.
“He’s dividing this country, and it’s extremely dangerous, and we need to impeach him,” Waters said.
Waters’ Agenda
Beyond investigating Donald Trump, Waters has a few planks in her platform that she’d like to work with Congress on.
One of those is student-loan forgiveness. Waters points out that too many Americans — millennials especially — are so saddled with student-loan debt that they can’t afford to buy a home, let alone to make ends meet in general.
To that end, Waters says, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she accuses the Trump administration of trying to dismantle, must be preserved and strengthened.
“So we’re going to fight to maintain that bureau, to strengthen that bureau, and not allow them to undermine it in such a way that they can’t do their job.”
However, she declined to give specifics as to how that will translate into student-loan forgiveness.