House Democrats are expected to vote next week in favor of a measure condemning President Donald Trump’s decision to hold the next G-7 summit at his resort Trump National Doral in Miami, Florida.
On Friday, the House Rules panel announced it will debate and amend a resolution Tuesday that objects to what they described as the president’s “practice of accepting foreign government Emoluments without obtaining Congress’ affirmative consent.”
The full text of the non-binding measure has yet to be released.
Democrats roundly condemned the White House’s decision to hold the summit at Doral, with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) calling it “the most brazen examples yet of the President’s corruption.”
“The Administration’s announcement that President Trump’s Doral Miami resort will be the site of the next G7 summit is among the most brazen examples yet of the President’s corruption. He is exploiting his office and making official U.S. government decisions for his personal financial gain,” Nalder said in a statement. “The Emoluments Clauses of the Constitution exist to prevent exactly this kind of corruption. The Committee will continue investigating, litigating and legislating regarding these matters—including pressing for answers to our prior requests about the G7 selection process—but we will not allow this latest abuse of power to distract from Congress’ efforts to get to the bottom of the President’s interference in the 2020 election.”
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney announced the decision at a White House news conference on Thursday, saying, “it was almost like they built this facility” to host the annual event. Mulvaney dismissed concerns that hosting the summit at the Trump property violates any ethics rules.
President Trump “doesn’t profit from being here, he has no interest in profiting from being here,” he explained to reporters, noting that it will host the event at “cost.”
“Doral was by far and away, by far and away the best physical location,” he added.
The summit, attended by the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, will take place June 10th-12th in 2020.
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