Richard Painter: ‘Trump Is a Traitor and Liar’

EXCERPT:

PAINTER: "The person answering it, if they’re United States government employee. She had the responsibility to say, 'This is official capacity interview, I can’t answer political questions right now.' She can do that in a different context. But as a White House official standing on the White House lawn, she cannot trash Doug Jones when he's running for the U.S. Senate or Joe Biden when he’s running for the presidency or any other candidate. That is illegal. I told everyone in the Bush White House that when I gave the ethics lectures, and in the Bush White House if someone did what Kellyanne Conway did would have been fired the first time, out the door in 24 hours. That's a slam dunk Hatch Act violation. Now, the only reason Donald Trump is doing this is for the same reason he's continued to take emoluments from foreign governments, in violation of the Constitution. He's shown the middle finger to the U.S. House of Representatives every time they give him a subpoena and continued to flout the law. That is that the U.S. House is unwilling to even open an impeachment inquiry. This president is a traitor and a liar. It’s very clear. He is exactly the type of person that the Founders envisioned when they drafted the impeachment clause. And it’s time for the U.S. House of Representatives to get going. If they don’t, he’s going to continue to do this and continue to flout the law.”