The White House accused Democrats on Sunday of not abiding by “rules and norms” governing oversight authority, saying that they were issuing subpoenas for documents they have no right to request.
“There are rules and norms governing congressional oversight of the executive branch, and the Democrats simply refuse to abide by them,” said White House deputy press secretary Steve Groves. “Democrats are demanding documents they know they have no legal right to see — including confidential communications between the President and foreign leaders and grand jury information that cannot be disclosed under the law.”
Groves then stressed that the White House will not comply with Democrats’ demands, which he called “unhinged and politically-motivated.”
CNN informs that President Donald Trump also attacked Democratic lawmakers later on Sunday, saying that their claims of a “constitutional crisis” were “a sad joke.” In his tweet, Trump pointed to what he said was “the strongest economy in our history, best employment numbers ever, low taxes & regulations” to rebut such claims, before accusing Democrats of perpetrating the constitutional crisis they are attributing to him.
“But we have had a giant SCAM perpetrated upon our nation, a Witch Hunt, a Treasonous Hoax. That is the Constitutional Crisis & hopefully guilty people will pay!” Trump also wrote.
The comments come at a time when Democrats are becoming increasingly frustrated with White House refusals to provide requested documents, which they perceive as unprecedented stonewalling of their oversight powers.
The latest example of that is President Trump’s latest move to invoke executive privilege over special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said was without basis.
“But here, the Trump administration has decided to say a blanket no; no to any kind of oversight whatsoever, no witnesses, no documents, no nothing, claiming executive privilege over things that it knows there is no basis for,” he said. “You can’t have a privilege — an executive privilege — when you’re not the executive.”
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