Americans are recognizing that they don’t trust the US President who has maintained that he knew nothing about what was went on in his campaign, Indian-American Congressman Pramila Jayapal has said.
Her comments came after Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last week.
He also agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigations about the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“You see people recognizing they don’t trust the President. They believe that Bob Mueller is doing a good job and that the investigation should continue. People are saying, look, this is outrageous,” the first Indian-American woman elected to the US House of Representatives told CNN on Sunday.
“This level of corruption, greed, some of the individual charges that are outlined in the Manafort, charging document really show that this guy (Manafort)… is in jail because of jury tampering.
“When you think about this, it isn’t just the individual pieces that we’re seeing, but what we’re seeing is top advisers, people who ran the campaign, the campaign manager, the deputy campaign manager, the President’s personal lawyer who have all pleaded guilty.
“… And you have to begin to wonder how it could possibly be the case that the President knew nothing about what was going on,” asked Jayapal.
She praised Muller for doing a “great investigation”.
“I think Bob Muller has been doing a great investigation. I think he was just handed the keys to the castle, not just with Manafort but also with Michael Cohen.”
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating election laws and said he had been directed to do so by the President. He had also admitted paying hush money to two women to keep them from talking about their affairs with Trump during the presidential campaign.
“They (people) see the chaos of the last 18 months. They don’t want it. They don’t like shattering of norms. What does a person who has the biggest bully pulpit of the White House do? They don’t like the tweets that come from the President, contesting what happened in (Hurricane) Maria,” Jayapal said.
She said that people want Trump to be focussed and to be presidential, but “he is none of those things”.
“In addition to that, people are not seeing their own lives changing. Healthcare is the number one issue on the table.
“When you look at what Republicans have done to undermine healthcare costs, to drive premiums up, to strip pre-existing, the ability to qualify for healthcare with pre-existing conditions, these are things that Americans care about. They do not see healthcare getting better,” she said.
(IANS)
