If the resolution were to pass yesterday, the treasury secretary would have to get the president s taxes and everything that goes with it to us and we would in privacy decide whether we should make them public. That is what the law said. The law is on our side. 6103 of the section tax code which was put into the tax code in 1924 after the teapot dome scandal. It was a result of that. Because there is no law that insists or says that the president has to give us his tax returns. But every president since gerald ford has given us his tax returns. The American People deserve to know if there are any potential conflicts. Are you president first or businessman first or whatever . Thats why we need to get his taxes. You cannot simply speculate about conflicts of interest. Article one section nine of the addresses gifts to the president of United States. If the president is going to carry on Foreign Policy with other countries, which is one of his jobs, then we have to know whether our president is clean on these matters weve never had the intrigue or the cup complications that weve had with this particular president. We have a right to do it. Not hiding anything come i dont understand why you wouldnt present that. Host the resolution of inquiry failed yesterday. 2415. All the democrats voted for it. Republicans voted against it, even though those republicans are on the ways and means they say the president should give up his taxes but would not vote because of protocol with the Republican Party. One republican actually said in committee yesterday that he thinks the president should give us his taxes and supplementals. A lot of people feel that way. Host here is what the resolution said. Why do you think his tax returns which show any of this . Whyd show any of this do you think his tax returns would show any of this . Guest if that werent complicated enough come i want to know who his partners were in other countries. I want to know how he did business in russia and china and azerbaijan. Theres a whole set of things we could be looking at. Part of the puzzle is looking at his tax returns. As it would be for me and you. We are not just talking about two sheets like the ones they sent out. They dont show us very much at all. Even the Financial Disclosure you send to the federal Elections Commission is only a it doesnt give you the specifics. We need to know a lot more. The president said he would give us this after his audit now, he says i dont have to give it to you. That maybe the law, but i have the power. This is the United States, this is not russia where we shoot down people or we push them out windows when they disagree with the government. Hopefully, we will never get to that point. Host dave in rochester, michigan. Democrat. Guest good morning, dave. Caller good morning. I think this inquiry is so very important. This president has demonstrated that he has a very hard time telling the truth. Its astonishing how many misstatements this president has made. In fact heue that said it was under audit was that a reason why he couldnt release his taxes . Its another misstatement. Could tell us a lot about these connections all over the world. I think its a very important part, especially given the fact that this president has made so many misstatements. Host let me put this on the table it could tell us a lot about possible russian ties. Theres no guarantee that the president s tax returns would reveal russian ties. Tiesif trump has business with russian oligarchs or the russian government, please note the if. Its highly unlikely that evidence of that which will open his personal tax returns. Guest a story about his dealings with several russians t had dubious backgrounds i dont disagree with what you just read. The only way we find out if that is true or not true is to look at the materials that we can get our hands on. Again, theres no obligation that the president has to give us his tax returns. Haub said all the president has given us so far is meaningless details that do not go to the heart of the issue. Former ethics arm under bush testified not too long ago. He said this we already have substantial reason to believe that he made all these jobs through vladimir putin. He said this. Not a democrat. This is not a political situation. To sayse who came back this is nothing but a political thing because you lost i spend a lot of time on this. The election is over. We have a newly elected president. I want to know if that person can conduct Foreign Policy. I want to know what relations he has on a business level or his family has because he has not divested himself. His kids have taken over part of the business. They are bright people. But we have a right to know who our president is dealing with, particularly with the nice massaging hes giving to vladimir putin. Host john in montana. Independent. Caller respect to you, colors meant. Respect to you, a congressman. You democrats need to investigate Hillary Clinton rubberstamping the iranian deal. And Hillary Clintons emails getting destroyed under a subpoena. Up guys need to either step and look into that stuff also or you lose all the integrity as a person. Guest that is a very good question. Id been 20 years into the congress, no one has ever you areme of absolutely right. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. The russians werent involved in our campaign. All the intelligence agencies have said that. I didnt have anything to do with that and you didnt have anything to do with that much on. To do with that, john. It has to do with how the president proceeds with being the president of United States. This is the greatest country in the world and we need to keep it that way but there are certain things in checks and balances. I am a member of congress. I have response abilities and obligations to look at those things as you pointed out. We have done that. Im in the minority. I dont institute investigations. The majority does. We are where we are. The president has only been president for two months and already, we have potential conflict of interest. Obligation and so does the ways and Means Committee or or Senate Finance committee the joint committee on taxation. The are the only three committees that can look into the things that we are talking about today. Host Thomas Goodfellow on twitter says fail s issue because of ure yesterday . Is there precedent for congress to manning the tax returns of a president . Guest absolutely. Under richard nixon, we got his tax returns. There is precedent. The ruling in section 6103 of the tax code was a result of the when thef teapot executive branch of government tried to privatize oil reserves for the navy. It was a huge scandal, probably the biggest scandal of the 20th century. There is precedent for this. And we intend to follow through on this. Host what is your next move . Guest we go back on the floor next week for a resolution. We have republicans who voted with us on the floor of the house. Times say it enough republicans have told me in private and now in public that they agree with what were doing. They have to move on republican protocol. I understand that. Host new york city, william is watching. Public in. Good morning. Republican. Caller good morning. I admire this man because i saw yesterday, he was trying to violate the rights of the american citizens next year, you have a right to say give us your text of transferred tax return. The president talks about guest privacy is camouflage. , the Republican Party in 2014 investigated lois lerner , the head of the irs, went into the tax returns, the ways and Means Committee voted to look organizationss of who they felt did not meet the rightwing definition. Throughrummaging peoples private business. This is not. When he ran for office, President Trump said he was going to give us his tax returns. Why has that changed because hes become the president. I didnt stand up at a rally and say would you give it that she offered that information he offered that information. Host i want you to respond to kevin brady yesterday. Heres what he had to say about demanding the tax returns of a president , what that could mean for private citizens. [video clip] this committee has at times sought tax return information as part of our legislative response ability to oversee the administration of our nations tax code. This would be the first time the committee has exercised authority to look into the texture and of a single individual with no ties to any investigation within our jurisdiction. Furthermore, there no mechanism through which the treasury secretary could legally comply with this request. Section 6103 only permits Tax Information to be furnished to the committee, not to the house. Obvious legal shortcomings, supporting this resolution would be a clear invasion of privacy. I would ask that all of our Committee Members take a step back for a moment and consider the dangerous precedent of abuse that would be set by this resolution. If congress chooses to use this power to single out President Trump for political purpose and , what his privacy prevents them from doing the same to other americans . Civil liberties and privacy are still rights worth protecting. I intend to protect them. Guest i warned the republican members of the committee i respect my brothers and sisters on the committee, ive always done that i sent first tor onto very to chairman on february 1 the chairman and he didnt answer the letter. I didnt put out a press release. This is absolute nonsense. The privacy of citizens is utmost. They voted yesterday to undo dot of that privacy they think the American People are stupid . We can get any information we want now. Im talking about the president of United States, not the citizens. They voted three years ago to go into the tax returns of 51 organizations because they were going after the irs director. That was rummaging through peoples privacy, not this. This is a president who said he would give us his tax returns. What has changed . This is not political, mr. Brady. This is democracy. Host the accomplishments referring to a vote in the house yesterday that would roll back Online Privacy regulations that were set by the Obama Administration controlled fcc. Guest 16 republicans had the guts to vote no on it. We should raise them up. Somebody longing to the freedom group, for crying out loud. Some of you belonging to the freedom group. Somebody belonging to the freedom group, for crying a lot. He doesnt know what hes talking about on this issue. He should have met with me before this went viral. Host tom in washington, d. C. A democrat. Theer can you tell Republican Leadership that under no circumstances will you guys take up tax reform unless he releases his tax returns . Under no circumstances. Guest interesting point. Here they are, we are going to go from health to tax reform we saw what happened the last three times they tried to do this when they had the majority. Whateform means who gets when we shuffle things. I said we will not do tax reform unless every move you make for wall street you make for main street. Those days are over. I dont care what ryans blueprint is. We are not going to do it that way any longer. Want to know how the tax reform is going to benefit the president , how is it going to benefit me . Dont the American People have the right to know that . Host lori in dallas, texas. Independent. Caller this doesnt have nothing to do with russia, but spill on trump and dubai and china and africa. Workers undocumented and he doesnt give them their passports back, hes making them work for a certain amount of money and hes working them all hours of the night and not even giving them proper places to sleep. They get their paycheck, he takes money from them and charges them for their food. They are working out in that heat. I cant wrap my brain around that. Its on tv. It is called trump enterprise. Guest that is interesting. I read about it but did not see that show. I will go back to my statement about vanderbilt. You have the law, but i have the power. We are not in an oligarchy. We are not in russia or china. We are in a democracy. That is what a democracy is all about. You want to go to russia . Go move there. I recommend you do that if thats how you feel. I choose to live in the United States of america, the greatest country in the world and my job im notress getting the paycheck because i have the title. Host front page of usa today. A lengthy piece. Trump network ties to alleged russian mob. They look at links to at least 10 wealthy former soviet businessman with alleged ties to criminal organizations for money laundering. The piece inside the newspaper says this deals with a large number of russians who bought condos and trump buildings raise questions guest what is he hiding . If you are worth 10 billion, great. I hope hes done welcome it really. I hope hes done well, really. I have a as a citizen right to know if theres any potential conflicts. How does he deal with china, how does he deal with russia . How does he deal with argentina . How does he deal with turkey . Hes got investments all over the world. Does he deal with turkey on the basis of one to one or on the basis of how much money hes got invested and what he can get out of it . Ofs not divested himself anything and hes been called on it by the ethics committee. Not by the ways and Means Committee, not by bill pascrell. Host a quote from the Trump Organization spokesperson who never enteredny into as a zynga transaction with any of these individuals and the condominium units were owned and sold by third parties, not mr. Trump. Guest that is absolutely correct. Clandestine, the more the necessity for him to release his tax returns, the supplementals and tell us about partnerships. There are all different parts of how you return your taxes. I can name four forms. And 50, form 71, forms 35 20, 8938 which all give us information about investments, about that, about losses. So that we find out whats really going on. It may be that the president has done nothing wrong. Well then lets put it all on the table. Whats wrong with that . I gave my taxes in 2012. I did that. I think the president of the United States while not demanded by law should tell the American People where he stands so that when we move the potential of conflicts of interests that its simply the deal and not Something Else in the background which is driving it. Host lets hear what mike has to say in vermont. A republican. Caller hello. Thank you for taking my call. Host good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to make a comment from my point of view, it seems to me since mr. Trump has become president , the democrats have done nothing but antagonize. Everything in every way. It is not doing the country any good. The country is not moving forward. We are iffer if not going to have a new program with mr. Trump, fine. If democrats want to have a civil war, lets go for it. We can do that. Guest we dont want civil wars. You speak out of context because on the day president obama was sworn in remember that . They met and said we are not going to help him in any manner, shape or form. How dare you bring up the possibilities that the Democratic Party i dont remember any meetings i have been at, both private or public, where anybody suggested we are not going to give this guy an inch. He is our president , not your president , sir. He is our president. I ever write to know and you have a right to know what are the potential conflicts of interest as he moves through his job day by day. Now, isnt it interesting . He says yesterday that maybe we should reach out more to the democrats. Where the heck that come from . Why . Why does he want to reach out to the democrats now . We are available. Yesterday afternoon, because im a Ranking Member on trade, they sent out a letter to all the Republican House and senate on how and when we are going to proceed about negotiating nafta. If youre going to criticize, know what youre talking about. Host when you work with the president to renegotiate nafta . Guest absolutely, thats my duty. Host benjamin, democrat. Caller i have to have a big sigh after that comment from that gentleman. Two comments. His taxesrump hiding or wont release them, people dont seem to remember eight years back when he had information about president obama being not from this country. Nobody seems to remember that. It is going the way to the fact that people just dont look at it like that. Mr. Trump is doing the same thing he always has. He is a businessman. I used to dealing with dont want to say scamming things, but i have friends that got screwed over when he owned trump plaza and atlantic in Atlantic City and he defaulted on everything. People just dont get that. The other thing is the fake media thing or fake news. I was watching a show this morning and even russia now is using that term. 10 years ago, nobody would ever call the media fake news. It is beyond me how people are letting him get away with this. And especially with his tax mean, as a citizen, the president is still a citizen. I as a citizen can get audited by the irs. Im not sure if that pertains to our president , but why is that path not being followed . Host congressman . Guest yes, people have selective memory. What can i tell you . They choose to remember only what they want to remember. You brought the subject up. I didnt. When you go back to the birther situation, and this president was at the forefront. He ran with the flag down the street. He was so positive that he had information about this. We never got the information, by the way. Maybe you got it, but i didnt. He ran down main street with this flag about the president being an illegitimate president. Haveresident should never been allowed to run for president because he was in a citizen. When i placed that up against the tax issue, that is very, very egregious in terms of the charge that he made about our president. And then heted him dismissed it at a press conference when he was running. We are not going to talk about that anymore. Like its already solved. It doesnt work that way. Im not here for retribution. We have a duly elected president. Im here to uphold democracy, it. Dammit, im going to do thats how i am and thats what i hope the people who elected me want. Host we appreciate your time. When we come back, we will talk caucus myrepublican. Ouie gohmert of texas we will be right back. This weekend, cspan cities tour with the help of our Comcast Cable partners will explore the literary scene and history of chico, california saturday at noon eastern on book tv. Author michael motley area tells us about the founding of chico. Important and long lasting relationship with the federal government, starting with his days in congress, was the close relationship with the department of agriculture. He was constantly corresponding with the officials in the usda and was constantly receiving from them different crops that they want to test it out in californias soil and climate. Chico asly used rancho one of their early experimental farms before they actually owned and ran their own. On sunday at 2 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv, we visit the California State University farm. It is the number one industry in california yet and we are the number one state in the nation in terms of agriculture. There are 23 campuses, but only four of them have agriculture. Chico represents the northern part of the state, but we draw students from all over california to get experience in agriculture itself. We will also go inside the chico museum to see the historic chinese altar from the 1880 chico chinese temple. Watch cspan cities tour of chico, california saturday at noon eastern on cspan twos book tv and sunday afternoon at 2 00