“Is it time to subpoena the president’s tax returns?” asked CNN’s Dana Bash of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday’s State of the Union.
“We’re not there, yet. But I do wanna know where they got their money in 2008 and 2009 when most people were struggling with the real estate investments,” replied Graham, presumably casting suspicion on the Trump Organization with respect to alleged financial links to the Russian state.
Bash repeated the question, inviting Graham to publicly commit to pursuing subpoenas of President Donald Trump’s tax returns:
You’re talking about the fact that you have a lot of doubts about the issues and the questions surrounding the president and his aides and so forth, but a tax document should not be something that is questionable. It is a legal document. So why is it too soon to take a look at those tax returns and use your power in Congress to subpoena them.
An image of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, was displayed during the segment’s introduction.
Bash hyped a Friday-published article in The Washington Post alleging that Jared Kushner discussed setting up “a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin” in order to avoid surveillance.
CNN is one of the foremost news media outlets pushing a narrative in which Trump is framed as an unwitting or willing tool of the Russian state to subvert American democracy. Allegations of the Russian government “hacking” or “meddling” in last year’s election are presented to frame last year’s presidential election as illegitimate by Democrats and news media outlets such as CNN.
Bash presents herself as a political objective and non-partisan news media figure who operates in good faith. CNN brands itself as “The Most Trusted Name In News.”
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