Kamala Harris demands to know if any Trump debt is owed to foreign government
Running mate says Americans ‘need to know’ who US president is indebted to, amid security concerns
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Your support makes all the difference.Kamala Harris has called on Donald Trump to reveal who he owes millions to, amid concerns his decisions were compromised as president.
After the New York Times reported on Sunday that he owed $400 million (£310 million) to unknown debtors, the Democratic vice presidential nominee asked who that money was owed to.
It comes as leading Democrats argue that the US president’s debt - if owed to foreign governments - risked American national security, in addition to breaking ethics on decision making.
“Who do you owe money to? And do you owe debt to any foreign nation?”, asked Ms Harris in an appearance on MSNBC on Monday night.
“Do you owe anybody money who is impacted by any decision you make as president of the United States?” she continued. “We need to know that,”
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“The American people have the right to know that when the president of the United States acts, he acts with their priorities in mind, not his priorities in mind,” she added.
Her comments came as Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, also raised concerns about Mr Trump’s unknown debt sources, saying they represented a potential threat to national security.
"To whom? Different countries? What is the leverage they have?" said Ms Pelosi to NBC on Monday, arguing that “this is a national security question."
"The fact that you could have a sitting president who owes hundreds of millions of dollars that he's personally guaranteed to lenders, and we don't know who these lenders are," she said, before naming Russian president Vladimir Putin as a potential lender Mr Trump was indebted to.
It follows the New York Times’ bombshell revelations about the then-television personality’s apparent tax avoidance, having paid no income tax for 10 years in the 15 years before he was elected.
When Mr Trump did make federal income tax payments in 2016 and 2017, they were reportedly as low as $750.
“I thought somebody left out the three zeros after a comma, I honestly couldn't believe it,” added Ms Harris. “Not only is it shocking, really shocking, truly shocking, but it’s so unfair”.
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