Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ready to go where no other politician has yet dared to go — President Trump’s personal finances. Her target — his tax returns.
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00:00So, while he's talking collusion, collusion, collusion, I think in oversight, we should
00:05be talking about taxes, taxes, taxes.
00:13You hear the president say, no collusion, no collusion, no collusion, right?
00:19He's always talking about the focus on the relationship between his campaign and Russia,
00:23which is, the scope of that investigation is under the House Intelligence Committee
00:29as well as several other investigatory bodies.
00:32So while he's talking collusion, collusion, collusion, I think in oversight, we should
00:36be talking about taxes, taxes, taxes, and his bank account, his bank account, his bank
00:41account, his financial statements, statements, statements, because that's where I think actually
00:46some of the most troubling practices are with direct relevance to the American people under
00:53the scope of oversight.
00:54We're talking about him artificially inflating his assets to insurance companies and artificially
01:00deflating his assets in order to avoid paying taxes when he's already benefiting when the
01:07public is building and paying for the courses that he's profiting off of.
01:11So I think that these are serious issues.
01:14I think we need to look at his finances, and I think the fact that he has not been forthcoming
01:21with them is concerning, but even for those who support the president and who believe
01:25that the president is in the clear, I think it's important that he is able to really instill
01:32that confidence in the American people that he's not swindling us, like every other president,
01:37and disclose his financial statements.
01:46To your knowledge, did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?
01:51Yes.
01:52And where would the committee find more information on this?
01:55Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to
01:59compare them?
02:00Yes, and you'd find it at the Trump org.
02:03To your knowledge, was the president interested in reducing his local real estate bills, tax
02:07bills?
02:08Yes.
02:09And how did he do that?
02:10What you do is you deflate the value of the asset, and then you put in a request to the
02:15tax department for a deduction.
02:19And would it help for the committee to obtain federal and state tax returns from the president
02:23and his company to address that discrepancy?
02:25I believe so.
02:26Thank you very much.
02:27I yield the rest of my time to the chair.