Lawmaker Threatens Donald Trump With A New Investigation

Donald Trump recently promised a room full of oil executives that he would give them everything they want (fewer regulations, tax cuts, and destruction of renewable energy sources) if they just gave him $1 billion. This comment didn't go unnoticed by Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, and Whitehouse is now suggesting that he might launch an investigation into these promises - which he called a quid pro quo - to go along with his recent investigation into the oil industry itself. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Last week, the Washington Post released a bombshell report about a recent little fundraiser meeting, whatever you want to call it, that Donald Trump had with executives from the oil industry. And during that conversation, Donald Trump told those executives that you all got a band together. And if you give me $1 billion, that was the number he put. He put a exact price tag on it of $1 billion. You do that for me. Trump says, and I will cut regulations. I will gut renewable energy in this country. I will give you tax breaks. I'll open up the Gulf of Mexico for you. I'll open up the Arctic for you to drill everything you've ever wanted, but you gotta give me the billion dollars. And he says, y'all can afford it. I mean, after all, we have seen oil companies, Exxon, Chevron in this country, uh, actually posting the highest profits that they have seen in over a decade in the last year.

We also are producing more oil domestically than at any other point in American history ever. So the oil companies are literally already getting everything they want. I mean more money than they know what to do with more oil than they know what to do with. But Trump says, vote for me and give me a billion dollars and I'll give you so much more. Now, if you're like me, that sounds an awful lot like extortion. And another person who seems to agree with that is actually somebody who's in a position to do something about it. And that happens to be Democratic. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse over this weekend, Sheldon Whitehouse came out and he said in an interview that this sounds an awful lot like a quid pro quo. And he is now threatening to use his position as committee chairman in the Senate to investigate Donald Trump and the oil industry for this possible extortion scheme.

And White House is a guy that we do need to take seriously on his threat to investigate these folks. After all his committee, uh, the budget committee along with the, uh, oversight and accountability committee in the Senate, they actually just released a port a report a week ago de detailing how for decades, the fossil fuel industry would pretend publicly that, oh dear, we gotta do something about climate change. And then behind the scenes, they're funding all these AstroTurf groups and climate science deniers and, you know, doing everything to benefit them, but publicly telling us, Hey, hey, we're on this climate change issue. Don't you dare worry. So he had just wrapped up an investigation into these a-holes, and now he's saying, you know what? Maybe we need another one. Let me read you this. This is practically an invitation to ask more questions,

Uh, calling it a natural extension of the investigation already underway. And then he said, talking about Trump's offer to these people, he said, put those things together and it starts to look mighty corrupt. And of course, he did refer to it. He said his instant thought about it was quid pro quo. And to be honest, that really is the only way to look at this. Donald Trump said, you give me billion dollars. I give you these things you want. And a, as I had said, uh, in a different segment, to me it sounds an awful lot like extortion, right? Like a mafia group telling a local shopkeeper like, Hey, you pay us money and we'll make sure nobody breaks into your shop and steals all your money.