The battle for the presidential race spilled over onto the Senate floor Thursday, as senators of both parties pushed for legislation targeting the other party’s nominee in a brief White House proxy war.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) blocked an effort to pass legislation that would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns. The push comes as Democrats are pressuring GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump to release his taxes.
{mosads}Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) initially tried to get unanimous consent to pass the Presidential Tax Transparency Act, arguing that Trump is breaking decades of political tradition by refusing to release his returns.
But Cornyn, arguing Democrats should focus their transparency efforts on Hillary Clinton’s State email server, asked if they would agree to pass their legislation and a GOP bill that would strip the former secretary of State of her security clearance.
“She has had, to put it charitably, innumerable challenges on the topic of transparency,” he said. “All we need to do is look at the way she exposed some of our nation’s most highly classified information by setting up a private email server.”
Wyden rejected the request, arguing that while Cornyn’s bill targets Clinton, his proposal would apply to any candidate who runs for president.
“We have what amounts to the flouting of a bipartisan good government transparency tradition,” Wyden told reporters after the floor fight.
The brief floor scuffle over the presidential race comes as Democrats, and a growing number of Republicans, have demanded that Trump release his tax returns.
The real estate magnate has cited ongoing audits, though the IRS has said it wasn’t preventing Trump from releasing the documents. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., defended his father’s decision this week, saying it would “detract from [Trump’s] main message.”
But Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) hit back on Thursday, arguing any candidate who won’t release their taxes “is hiding something.”
“He’s either hiding how much he really earns or he’s hiding stashed money in offshore accounts,” she added. “Maybe there were years when he paid no taxes at all.”
The Democratic legislation would require major-party presidential candidates to provide the Federal Election Commission (FEC) with their three more recent years of tax returns within 15 days of becoming the party’s nominee. If a candidate doesn’t release their taxes within 30 days, the FEC would release the returns.
Democrats also questioned Trump’s ties to foreign governments, after Newsweek reported this week that the Trump Organization’s foreign business would present a conflict of interest that could undercut the nominee’s foreign policy if he wins the White House.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Trump’s positions on Russia couldn’t be explained as bolstering U.S. national security.
“Trump’s position on Russia … may be in his financial interest,” he added. “He and his family may have millions or billions to gain from a cooling of tensions with Russia or a release of the sanctions.”
Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that he will cut ties with his organization if he wins the White House, and leave his children and executives in charge of the business.