Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell is facing backlash for offering to pay Republican senators to oppose the tax bill. Her critics said it’s tantamount to bribery.
The ex-“View” host promised Tuesday night to give a $2 million apiece to Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) if they voted against the bill.
“i swear,” she wrote in another tweet, “i will write them a check.”
“i will HAPPILY pay any GOP senator 2 million dollars to vote NO,” she said in another. “they have been paid obviously.”
“If they vote NO ... NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS FOR THE SUOER RICH” (sic), she also wrote.
No Republican senator voted in opposition to the measure.
Offering members of Congress money in exchange for an official act is a federal offense.
“i disagree it is obvious there is a price corker had one collins too
flake almost brave he crawled out backwards
2 million to any GOP senator who votes no on KILLING AMERICANS
MILLIONS WITH OUT HEALTH CARE
MY GOD HAVE WE NO SO”
Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor, said it’s not clear if her tweets violated the bribery clause.
“It all rides on what her intent was in writing that tweet,” she told the newspaper. And trying to buy influence isn’t “the point of this whole string of these tweets. What she’s trying to do is fake-offer a bribe to point out that they’ve already been politically been bought.”
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The House approved the measure, 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday.
“By cutting taxes and reforming the broken system, we are now pouring rocket fuel into the engine of our economy,” Trump said in a statement after the vote.
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