Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said on Morning Joe today that she doesn’t think Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) should step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee because of an ongoing ethics committee investigation for alleged offenses including not reporting income on tax and financial disclosure forms and renting apartments at below-market value (Here’s TPMmuckraker’s most recent rundown of the allegations.) Waters also suggested that Rangel may not be alone in the House in failing to properly fill out disclosure forms.
House Majority Leader has said he’ll block any resolution by House Republicans to forcibly remove Rangel as chairman. Rep John Carter (R-TX), the Republican conference secretary, has said he’ll introduce such a resolution this week if Rangel doesn’t step down.
This morning, Waters said that Rangel shouldn’t give up his chairmanship.
“He should not step down from his chairmanship,” she said. “He should keep working and let the investigation take its course. And if the investgation proves that he has done something wrong, that he should be penalized, then that’s the time to consider stepping down or retiring.”
Waters also suggested that Rangel’s not the only one who’s failed to fill out disclosure forms properly.
“I wanna tell you, there are many members who if you go back over all of their records over the years, you’re going to find that there are disclosures that were not made.”
