Tuesday, on CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said that President Donald Trump is acting like a dictator by “openly selling access and influence.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “You’ve been sounding the alarm when it comes to concerns about the Trump administration’s dealings around crypto, which is a topic we’ve covered a great deal on this show. You introduced a bill, the End Crypto Corruption Act. What would that do, and what’s the status of the bill?”
Merkley said, “It says that all elected, federally elected, House and Senate members, certainly the president, the vice president, senior executives in the Executive Branch cannot benefit from selling or trading in crypto. And there are two main forms of really what is policy up for sale right now. One is the president saying, I’ll give you an email with a picture of a coin if you give me your money, and that’s the sale of a meme coin, which is kind of like a digital baseball card. Then the second is this other form of crypto that’s used in international transactions.”
He added, “We absolutely shouldn’t let this opportunity pass to end this sort of U.S. government being up for sale. This is something that we expect to happen in very tiny countries with dictators, not the United States of America, where the president is openly selling access and influence.”
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