and walter schaub has done that. he has done that effectively. i do not expect that there are going to be efforts under way to try to fire mr. schaub. we're not going to have a saturday night massacre over at the government of ethics office. i would be very shocked. >> anything is possible, as has been said here. one of the things that happened here today, jared kushner was sworn in, in the east room of the white house a couple of hours ago. how much of the concern do you have about jared kushner, when we talk about it, in the framework of nepotism here? >> on inauguration day, they found that this was permitted under the statute. that is ambiguous. i think that the president would have been best off going to congress to get them to clarify the statute. but the most important thing, however, is that mr. kushner, along with everyone else working for the president, must comply with the criminal conflict of interest statute and the disclosure regulations. he is going to have to disclose his assets and his wife's assets on the form 278 and will have

his name is walter schaub.walter schaub has no reason to fear being thrown out of office by donald trump. donald trump is not supposed to be able to do that. well, today after the incoming president announced that he would not really be divesting from his business interests. walter made a remarkable public statement. he gave his blunt and passionate and patriotic assessment of what trump is offering. >> it's important to understand that the president is now entering a world of public service. he is going to be asking his own appointees to make sacrifices. he is going to be asking our men and women in uniform to risk their lives in conflicts around the world. so no, i don't think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the united states america. >> you see the lines being drawn now in d.c. we know donald trump on one side and democrats on the other. but this fight over ethics, this fight is something else. this is the incoming president versus ethics. and that fight has only just started ap

i do not think that walter schaub has done anything out of the ordinary here in terms of his views. e is a broad bipartisan consensus, republicans and democrats alike, that the trump plan is inadequate to solve his conflicts. schaub was just the latest to join that consensus. and what the republican chairman of the house oversight committee, mr. chaffetz, is doing is wrong. he wants to have a secret star chamber style tribunal to hear privately from schaub. the democrats are saying, why can't we have a public hearing, which would be the normal way to do these things. we're not in the middle ages here where we haul people in that way. and he's prejudged. he hasn't heard what schaub's reasoning is. and mr. chaffetz is blessing the trump plan. john, it's not just me saying this, but the republican bush ethics czar, mr. painter, a distinguished american scholar, says the same thing. it's outrageous. >> i should say, elijah cummings, the democrat who sits on the house oversight committee, contacted me over the break to say he is calling for this hearing to be is the president-elect's plan

. >> that is walter schaub. you saw him draw fire from reince priebus. talk to norm eisen and richard painter. >> well, george, think that is terrible. walt schaub is a dedicated public servant, come up through the ranks under both republicans and democrats. >> he did give a contribution to president obama. >> he did, before he was a director. so did his predecessor. walt schaub is a true hero for speaking out. he's cleared the nominations provided to him. voer us is 20% at this point in the obama transition, which i worked on. >> you have heard from the incoming trump administration. they say that the conflicts of interest laws do not apply to the president. that's correct on the central he's gone above and beyond what is called for by putting his assets into a trust, putting his sons in charge of it. no new foreign deals. limited information on what schaaping with the business and putting the hotel profits from foreign countries into -- donating that to the treasury. why isn't that good enough? >> some of the conflict of interest laws do apply to the p

walter schaub slammed the plan to hand his businesses over to his sons. he called it meaningless. some ethics leaders see the move as a threat to pull funding from the ethics office unless it lays off donald trump. >>> effective immediately, cubans will not be granted residency. president obama is ending the so-called wet foot-dry foot policy. if you reached the mainland, you could stay. if you are picked up by sea, you have to go back to the country. >>> 41 minutes past the hour. if you missed the heartfelt surprise sendoff joe biden got from president obama, it is a moment worth watching. we will bring it to you next. >>> this is some surprise. president obama pulled a fast one on his friend and vice president joe biden at the white house ceremony thursday. mr. obama had a special honor for biden in gratitude for the eight years of service. it was fight quite an emotionalt for mr. biden. >> to know joe biden is to know love without pretense, service without self regard and to live life fully. as one of his long time colleagues in the senate, who happened to be a republican, said

director walter schaub junior writing to chuck schumer and elizabeth warrin that this is a process that takes weeks, not days. this has created undue pressure on oge staff to rush through the important reviews. more significantly, it has left some of the nominees with potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues shortly before their scheduled hearings. oge director says this is the first time in 40 years that the senate will hold a confirmation hearing before a nominee completed the ethics process. the democratic national committee is demanding hearings be delayed until all the ethics reduce are finished, accusing republicans of trying to jam through unvetted nominees. republican majority leader mitch mcconnell says the confirmation process won't slow down. democrats are sore losers noting republicans confirm seven obama appointees on his inauguration day. >> so all of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration at having not only lost the white house, but having lost the senate. i understand that, but we need to grow up here and get past that. need to have th

he will turn over his businesses to his sons, but the head of the office of government ethics walter schaub blasted the plan. that prompted the republican chair of the oversight committee to summons shab to appear to discuss his views of the president-elect's plans. let's debate with all with norman eisen, the former white house ethics disaster and fellow at the brookings institute. also with us is famed economist and actor ben stein joins us from los angeles. nice to have you both on the program. let me begin with you, norman. here's a part of what trump's attorney said arguing, look, he's gone way further than he even has to when it comes to his businesses. >> the constitution says officials may not accept gifts, titles of nobility from foreign governments with respect to their office and that no benefit should be derived by holding an office. the so-called amollments clause has never been applied to fair value, changes. that have nothing to do with an office holder. no one would have thought when the constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an amoll ewement. >> is she rig

. >> that position prompted this response from the head of the office of government ethics walter schaub. >> the president is now entering a world of public service. he's going to be asking his own appointees to make sacrifices. he's going to be asking our men and women in uniform to risk their lives in conflicts around the world. so, no, i don't think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the united states of america. >> here are the really important takeaways and what we learned today which is that donald trump will not release his tax returns, he will not liquidate his assets or divest and he will not place those assets into a blind trust. instead he will enter the white house with the ability to use u.s. policy to enrich himself and his family while maintaining a financial empire that could routinely invite bribery attempts on the part of foreign or even domestic actors. remarkably, trump gave a con treat example of what that could look like detailing a heretofore meeting he held without public knowledge with a developer from dubai. >> over the weekend i was o

and there was a letter yesterday from walter schaub responding to a letter from senator carper and other epw democrats regarding attorney general pruitt and potential conflicts of interest and they say if the office of government ethics has transmitted a certified financial disclosure report and an ethics agreement to the senate, which they have, it means the office of government ethics is satisfied that all financial conflicts of interest have been identified and resolved. senator ernst. >> thank you, mr. chair. thank you attorney general pruitt for appearing in front of us today. i enjoyed our conversation both one on one and then in a group setting as well. and i would like to go back n revisit our decision on the rfs. as you know, iowa is home to 43 ethanol refineries. we are the largest producer of ethanol west or east of the missouri river. president-elect trump reiterated his support for biofuels while he was campaigning across iowa and all across the midwest. and those areas of the country overwhelmingly supported his candidacy. and led to his victory. and thank you for stating o

i'll read a little of what walter schaub, he gave a speech in which he said the president is enteringhe world of public service and asking his own pointees to ke sacrifices. ali, i have to give you the last word in this segment. jonathan, you had a point to make? >> no. i think he's absolutely right. i want to hear what ali has to say. >> ali, the bottom line is that donald trump is showing us in a lot of ways the difference between laws and conventions. a lot of things that i think a lot of americans thought were laws were really conventions and he's flouting them all. how far can he go before he runs into a republican who will do something about it? >> the polls that you have showing are opposite of what republicans who voted for him and put him over the top who really are very concentrated on wages and economic growth if that results in higher wages. so to some degree he is still playing to the audience that says no one's been able to fix those fundamental problems, very much the same message bernie sanders was giving. if he can fix those messages then i don't really care about was

then there is a letter yesterday from walter schaub responded to a letter from senator carper and other democrats regarding potential conflicts of interest and they say that office of government ethics has transmitted a certified financial disclosure report and an ethics agreement to the senate, which they have, it means the office of government ethics is satisfied that all financial conflicts of interest have been identified the result. senator ernst. >> thank you mr. chair. and thank you attorney general prefer appearing in front of us today. i enjoyed our conversation both one-on-one and a group setting. i'd like to go back and revisit our discussion on our ff. as you know, i was home to 43 ethanol refineries. we are the largest producer of ethanol west, or east of the missouri river. president-elect trump reiterated his support for biofuels while he was campaigning across iowa. and across the midwest. those areas of the country overwhelmingly supported his candidacy and led to his victory. thank you for stating once again that you would honor his commitment to biofuels like carrying

>> i think the senate and the house -- jason chaffetz is going after walter schaub, the governor of ethics guy because he thinks he has gone way anti-trump. >> in a previous world, if you gave out a comment like that, like the kind of comments he gave out, you would have a job for life. >> are we supposed to bring joe in on this? >> yeah. >> i want to start off where i began the week. in chicago, i watched ken griffin from citadel talk, he said you guys better get ready for no major infrastructure spending and no major tax cuts, that all the pro growth stuff is coming from deregulation because also not enough money. deficit politics will constrain the stimulus from the trump administration. is that your view? >> it's a good question. first thing i'd say, we're bullish on earnings, bullish on corporate profits, here we are at the beginning of the reporting season, we can see two, three quarters worth of profits growth here without any stimulus, whether it's fiscal stimulus or tax cuts. there's enough momentum in year over year comps, and enough momentum in energy markets and things like tha