Senate

Warren, Dems lay out goalposts ahead of Trump press conference

by Jordain Carney - 01/10/17 6:22 PM ET

Senate Democrats are laying out goalposts ahead out Donald Trump’s press conference, urging the president-elect to shed any financial conflicts of interest.

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Bob Casey (Pa.) and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) said Tuesday that Trump’s vast financial entanglements are “deeply concerning.”

“If President-elect Trump announces anything short of full and complete divestment at his press conference tomorrow he will leave a cloud of suspicion hanging over his administration,” the senators said in a joint statement.

The senators added that unless Trump’s sheds all financial conflicts of interest “the American people will not be able to tell where the Trump Organization ends and where the Trump administration begins.”

{mosads}Trump is expected to hold a press conference on Wednesday, which will his mark his first since July 27.

He delayed a mid-December press conference where he was scheduled to explain how he would untangle himself from the Trump Organization

Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said the press conference would be delayed because of “how convoluted and complex many of these business holdings are.”

Trump told reporters late last month that his business connections are “not a big deal. “

“You people are making that a big deal, the business, because look, No. 1, when I won, they all knew I had a big business all over the place,” the president-elect said.

Warren and nearly 30 congressional Democrats this week introduced legislation that would require Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, their spouses and dependent children to divest any potential conflicts of interest and place them in a blind trust.

The legislation would make it the “sense of Congress” that any violation by Trump of conflict of interest or ethics rules applying to executive branch employees would be a “high crime or misdemeanor.”

The Democratic legislation faces an uphill battle in a GOP-controlled Congress and would need Republican support to clear the Senate.

Tags Bob Casey Donald Trump Elizabeth Warren Mike Pence Tammy Baldwin