With lawmakers in both parties criticizing remarks by President Donald Trump in which he said he would not automatically reject offers of foreign election help, the head of the Federal Election Committee went on Mr. Trump's favorite social media platform Thursday night to clearly state that such a move 'has been considered unacceptable since the beginning of our nation.'
“Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office,” said Federal Elections Commission chair Ellen Weintraub.
“It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election,” Weintraub said in a statement on Twitter.
Without mentioning the President directly, the FEC chief directly addressed one of his comments in an interview earlier this week with ABC News.
“Any political campaign that receives an offer of a prohibited donation from a foreign source should report that to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Weintraub said, echoing calls by the FBI Director last month, and directly contradicting the President's statements from earlier this week.
“Everybody in the country should be totally appalled by what the President said,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday.
“This one borders on so totally unethical that he doesn’t even realize it,” she added, as the President took flak from members of both parties.
“I think it's a mistake,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “I don't want to send a signal to encourage this.”
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