White House Vows Democrats Will Never See Trump's Tax Returns; Interview with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) about the Mueller Report; Trump's Lawyer Issues Letter Fighting Democrats' Demand for Tax Returns.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now the White House is vowing Democrats will never see the documents. This follows Democrats' unprecedented request to the IRS for six years of Trump's personal tax returns. Here is how acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is responding to that.</s>MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Keep in mind, they knew they were not going to get these taxes. They know what the law is, they know that one of the fundamental principles of the IRS is to protect the confidentiality of you and me and everybody else who files taxes. Not --</s>BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS HOST: To be clear, you believe Democrats will never see the president's tax returns?</s>MULVANEY: No. Never, nor should they. That is not going to happen and they know it. This is a political stunt by my former colleagues.</s>WHITFIELD: Never is a big shift from this.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I decide to run for office, I will produce my tax returns, absolutely. I'm releasing when we're finished with the audit. I will release my tax returns against my lawyer's wishes when she releases her 33,000 e- mails. I'll release them when the audit is completed. As soon as that's finished, whenever that may be, and hopefully it's going to before the election. I'm fine with that.</s>WHITFIELD: This comes as Mulvaney reveals the White House will release a healthcare plan before the 2020 election so Republicans can tout a counter to Obamacare. And as pressure builds on the U.S. attorney general William Barr to release the Mueller report, as we near his mid-month promised release dare, Democrats are doubling down on calls for the unredacted report right now. Let's start first with the fight for the president's tax returns. CNN White House correspondent Boris Sanchez joining me now. So tell us more about this escalating fight.</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. The president and some of his allies essentially are saying that this is an illegitimate political stunt. Democrats trying to open up a new front in their battle against the White House, specifically for transparency on this one. The House Ways and Means Committee demanding six years worth of the president's tax returns and tax returns related to some of his business interests. The White House knew this was coming. Sources indicate that they're preparing for this for some time. They immediately took a defensive posture. The argument from the White House is that the American people elected President Trump without ever having to see his tax returns, therefore, they say, that Democrats are trying to use this as a political weapon against the president that they do not like. We should point out the president has talked several times as you just heard about potentially releasing his tax returns once an IRS audit is completed. That IRS audit has taken up quite some time several years now, and there's no sign that it's going to be completed any time soon. In fact, it's been difficult for reporters to confirm with the IRS that such an audit is taking place. This will likely turn into yet another legal battle for the White House, one that the president is apparently prepared to take all the way to the Supreme Court -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: So Mulvaney also discussed this meeting, you know, held at Camp David this weekend about healthcare. What more are we learning about that?</s>SANCHEZ: Yes, the acting chief of staff hosting White House staffers and cabinet members at Camp David over the weekend to plot out a path forward for a Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. This would be the third such attempt by the administration to do so. Mulvaney said that he would have a plan for Congress before the 2020 election. Listen to what he said on one of the Sunday morning talk shows.</s>MULVANEY: We spent the time this weekend saying OK, what have we done, what can we talk about that's a success, what do we need to work on going forward? We talked about the individual marketplace, we talked about how we're protecting Medicare, we're talking about getting drug prices down. And I do think you'll see a plan fairly shortly.</s>HEMMER: Will you see it before the 2020 elections?</s>MULVANEY: Yes. No, we want to run on this. We're a firm believer you can't beat something with nothing. We have -- Republicans have better ideas than Democrats. We should not be afraid to talk about that.</s>SANCHEZ: You can't beat something with nothing. Mulvaney echoing what we heard from President Trump last week when he publicly told Republicans that they needed to come up with a plan to combat Obamacare. Again they have tried to repeal and replace twice already. They haven't been successful. The president telling the world he wants Republicans to be the party of healthcare -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Boris Sanchez, thank you so much. All right. So now we're one day closer to U.S. attorney general William Barr releasing the redacted Mueller report, which he said he would do by mid-April. But Democrats are not willing to wait. They want the unredacted version and they want it as soon as possible.</s>REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): If Republicans think that's perfectly fine because it doesn't amount to the crime of conspiracy, then we're going to part company, and I'm not going to stop making the point that we should hold our president, our campaigns, our elected officials to a higher standard than mere criminality.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And you have no regrets of anything you've said in the last couple of years?</s>SCHIFF: I don't regret calling out this president for what I consider deeply unethical and improper conduct, not a bit.</s>REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): You can commit shameful acts, you can commit complete betrayals to the public interest without committing impeachable acts. And if you did that, the public ought to know that, too. And the standard here is not an impeachment. The standard is what was -- the standard is we have to protect the public from presidential misconduct from anybody else and the public has to know about it. And we have to get all the evidence so we can -- subject to protecting certain classified information -- decision that the Judiciary Committee has always made in the past and can make now, the public ought to know all of it.</s>WHITFIELD: Joining me right now Democratic congresswoman from Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee, member of the Judiciary Committee. Good to see you.</s>REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): Thank you, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: So members authorized Chairman Nadler to issue a subpoena for the full report and the underlying evidence. But as far as we know, you know, he hasn't actually, you know, received, you know, executed that request for the subpoena. So President Trump is already lashing out, he has all weekend, you know, about the investigation on Twitter. In your view is this kind of an indication that the president is particularly nervous about that report as we approach that mid-April point, according to, you know, Barr, he would be releasing at least the redacted version?</s>LEE: Well, Fredricka, before I start, we are here in Houston under a tornado watch and heavy thunderstorms. After Hurricane Harvey, I just want to encourage all of those in the region surrounding counties to please be careful and safe. There are downed power lines and to pay attention to emergency notices that are going to come through. Thank you for letting me do that. We have gone through a lot here in Houston and the surrounding areas. But this is clearly a presentation or an effort by the administration that has gone very wrong and very bad. And it started with Attorney General Barr trying to interpret and distort and direct in another direction the straightforward report that was submitted, 445 pages, by Director Mueller and the summaries. All Attorney General Barr had to do as the Starr Report was done -- the Starr Report, under an independent counsel, sent the report to the Congress, a Republicans Congress, and obviously I believe a slanted effort, but to Republican Congress with a message that said you have in here matters that may have relevance that are classified, sources and methods and also 6-E material, that's the criminal materials under the grand jury provision. And he said be careful of it and handle it appropriately. That's all General Barr needed to do.</s>WHITFIELD: And how --</s>LEE: He did not do that.</s>WHITFIELD: Right. And how is that precedent different from circumstances today in your view? Why is the attorney general interpreting the responsibility and the information differently?</s>LEE: I think the attorney general -- and in this instance the Starr -- Mr. Starr sent these directly to the Congress following the law, that a report should be rendered to the Congress and to the American people in the public interest. Attorney General Barr already indicated his bias that he didn't think a president could be indicted by a memo or an opinion that he wrote some years ago before he became attorney general, and so he -- what he did is he intercepted the report and the American people don't want his intercepting and his interpretation, and it made it worse because the investigators under Director Mueller told us the truth. They said there are summaries that should have been rendered to you and Mr. Barr did not render them to us. So here's where we are. We want them immediately released. We've given him the time. He's talking about doing it in mid-April but he's also talking about redacted. We want the complete unredacted copies with the summaries, with the documentation and we in Congress who have the highest secret clearance, and Judiciary Committee that is a designated committee to do these investigations under the rule of law will appropriately handle all of this material and we will present it in the appropriate manner to the American people. But it will allow us to go on with our version, particularly about the obstruction of justice, Fredricka, where the president was not exonerated, of which he indicates that he was.</s>WHITFIELD: And in the meantime this week Barr is scheduled to testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee and that would be, you know, Tuesday on the budget. Is it your expectation that he in some fashion might be asked about the handling of the Mueller report, content of Mueller report, his summary versus other summaries by the investigative teams? Do you see that that may happen and if it would be appropriate?</s>LEE: I can't project what the appropriators will ask. They have every right to determine how practices are utilized in the Department of Justice and as relates to their appropriations. In doing that, there may be those kinds of questions. As you well know, we intend to call General Barr and Director Mueller and a number of other individuals who we think have handled or are aware of the materials relevant to the Mueller report. In addition you well know we sent out 81 letters of materials from others who we believe had some knowledge about the Russian interference in the election and as well matters dealing with the obstruction of justice that we believe has not been fully vetted under the Mueller report or at least it has not been -- there have not been conclusions on who obstructed justice or who did not obstruct justice and particularly as relates to the president of the United States. So we want to, again, follow the rule of law. We want to adhere to our duties as an oversight committee dealing with the Department of Justice. We want to ask the questions about abuse of power, public corruption and obstruction, that's our job. And we want to do it without the attorney general interfering. And you know what, I have been home in my district unsolicited people have come to me and said I want this report. 56 percent of Republicans want this report. 81 percent of the American people want this report, or at least 56 percent around that number of independents want that report, 56 percent of the American people believe that they're not satisfied by the initial conclusions not because they don't believe Director Mueller but they want to see it for themselves.</s>WHITFIELD: And now turning to the fight over the president's tax returns. What is your reaction to the acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney who says, you know, Democrats will never see those returns?</s>LEE: Well, it clearly highlights what Democrats have been going through with this administration. First as the minority party for the last two years of the beginning of his administration, not one single thing was done to hold the administration accountable. Not one single thing was done by the Republican majority. They did spend a great deal of their time on Benghazi finding nothing. They've spent a great deal of their time trying to dig up again Secretary Clinton's e-mails which was well vetted and indicated there were no criminal acts occurring. So we had no rule of law proceeding under the past two years. Now all of the issues before Democrats are simply what the responsibility of Congress is. It is not a foot stool for the administration. It's an Article One body. We have the responsibility to do our job. This is allowed under 6103, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has the right to ask for the tax filing of any American, and he or she, in this instance, Chairman Neal, would hold it confidentially and he has a right to determine whether or not the IRS has been effectively reviewing and/or enforcing tax laws. And also --</s>WHITFIELD: So at the same time do you run the risk of looking --</s>LEE: -- to determine whether or not the president --</s>WHITFIELD: Sorry to interrupt, but do you run the risk of looking overzealous, that you're trying to make up for lost time?</s>LEE: Absolutely not. And I think that's a very good question. And what I was saying is that it will also determine whether the president was under audit. Remember he was saying that throughout the entire time.</s>WHITFIELD: The campaign.</s>LEE: That he was running his campaign. He wasn't under oath but he was making a statement to the American people. No, I don't think that is the case because I think in the instance of Chairman Neal and the Ways and Means Committee, they have been particularly deliberative in reviewing how the knowledge of his tax filings would help them in making the IRS more effective for all of the American people. I think that's important. As relates to the Judiciary Committee, we have been studious in everything that we have begun to do. We have not had hearings that have been directly on the issues that we are concerned about. We are now investigating, studying, reviewing documents. If we were being reckless, we would immediately have hearings with no facts and make accusations against the administration. We have not done that. Our committee under Chairman Nadler does not intend to do that but we intend to do our job. And this administration has just made so many blatant statements and blatant -- and taken blatant actions, all of that impacts the good welfare and health of the American people. We think we have the responsibility to let them know whether their government is being run correctly, particularly under the Article Two executive.</s>WHITFIELD: OK.</s>LEE: Because they have a lot of power.</s>WHITFIELD: We'll leave it there. Thank you so much, U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. And of course, we wish you and your constituents well with this impending storm. Thank you so much.</s>LEE: Thank you for having me.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, new breaking details on the American found alive after she was abducted by an armed gang overseas. What we're learning about the paid ransom next.