Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) Concedes "Maybe" President Donald Trump's Crypto "Entanglements" Need to Be "Addressed"

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) conceded when pressed by Dan Abrams that “maybe” President Donald Trump's crypto “entanglements” and other investments need to be “addressed.”

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) conceded when pressed by Dan Abrams that “maybe” President Donald Trump‘s crypto “entanglements” and other investments need to be “addressed.”

McCormick joined The Dan Abrams Show on Monday, where Abrams, Mediaite’s founder, noted concern about Trump’s recently-launched meme coin. Abrams cited a new Wall Street Journal report titled, “Breaking Down Trump’s Entanglements With Crypto,” while running through the massive reported profits the president is bringing in. Trump offered top investors perks, including access to him and a private gala at his golf resort.

“The Trump family and its partners have made like $320 million in trading fees alone since the president’s meme coin launched. You okay with all this?” Abrams asked McCormick.

The lawmaker argued that “at least it’s an honest conversation this time,” pivoting to former President Joe Biden and ethics concerns stemming from his son, Hunter Biden, selling paintings for high-dollar amounts. He acknowledged that “maybe” Trump’s crypto offerings “need to be addressed.”

McCormick said:

At least it’s an honest conversation this time. Before, when people are selling artwork from a son of a certain president for exorbitant amounts, it was considered not really an issue, and I’m not sure why. But I think maybe it needs to be addressed.

I look at the strict conversation about what we get compensated for as congressmen and as senators and the conflict of interest [reviews] that we have to do every year to make sure we don’t have a conflict of interests. The presidency has much more. And that’s something maybe we as a Congress take a look at.

McCormick declared he’s “pro-limiting” presidential power and went on to complain that members of Congress don’t make enough money, arguing many take pay cuts to serve.

Abrams pressed McCormick further on Trump, noting there has also been backlash to the president boasting about being gifted a $400 million plane from Qatar.

“You’re saying that, yeah, we may have to look into that. I mean, it seems to me like you definitely have to look into it, right? It seems like it’s sort of unambiguous about the potential risks,” Abrams said, adding he would expect “straight shooter” members of Congress to investigate Trump and his financial dealings while in office.

“Well, it’s not an investigation. It’s wide open. It is transparency,” McCormick argued. “It’s not a matter of if it’s happening or not. That’s where the investigation would come. We know it’s happened. The question is, is it legal? I don’t think it’s illegal. If it’s illegal, it’ll be prosecuted because nobody’s hiding anything. The question is, should it be illegal? That’s the question you’re asking.”

Abrams pushed back on the “transparency” argument, noting that the $400 million jet gift was only revealed to the public through a media report.

“I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to hide a gift for $400 million,” McCormick said.

“That’s true, that’s true that eventually it would have become public, but for now the only reason we know about it is because of a media report,” Abrams said.

McCormick again went after Biden, citing the former president’s pardons he offered to family members just before leaving office.

“So to you, the more important issue is whether we know about it — is more important than the underlying conduct itself?” Abrams asked.

“Yeah, because you can’t deal with it if you don’t know about it. Now, if we know about that, we can actually have the people weigh in and say, what laws do we want to have as a governor, as a reflection of the people? What accountability [do] we want to have? That’s a great conversation. I’m willing to have that all day long,” McCormick said.

“I guess the part that’s still hidden is what exact influence these Middle Eastern countries are having on policy, right? We don’t know. We can’t know exactly what conversations are going on behind closed doors. Are there quid pro quos, etc? Those are questions we don’t have the answer to, and that would require an investigation.”

“That’s why it’s really important to have the president working with Senate and Congress when it comes to passing bills rather than executive privilege when it comes to [policy making] — then you can’t have a quid pro quo for one person. You have to have the checks and balances of the Senate and the House, that’s where the real people’s representation lies, and that’s where it always should be.”

Watch above via The Dan Abrams Show