Donald Trump’s effort to “unify” Congress is continuing to produce a bumper harvest.
For instance, the U.S. House Oversight Committee chairman, Republican Jason Chaffetz of Utah, has called for an investigation into senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway’s apparent shilling for Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing. Ranking Democratic committee member Elijah Cummings of Maryland joined Chaffetz in seeking to know whether Conway violated federal ethics laws.
The lawmakers sent a letter to the head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, Jr., suggesting that Conway’s appearance on “Fox and Friends” could have crossed the line that bans federal officials from promoting private business endeavors.
Chaffetz and Cummings have recommended punishment for Conway.
Trump, quite naturally, is standing by Conway, who has told the media that the president is “100 percent behind me.”
Ethics just keep getting in the way.
The president’s myriad business interests — along with those of his grown children — are likely to continue dogging the administration until all of the Trumps decide to divest themselves of all that lucrative activity.
Meanwhile, I will give the president a left-handed compliment. He vowed to “unify” the country. He isĀ keeping that pledge by unifying some of our elected representatives — although clearly not in ways he envisioned.