President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump lashed out at Democrats on Tuesday, criticizing lawmakers in the party for investigating his family.
Trump, 35, who currently serves as an executive vice president of The Trump Organization, appeared for an interview on Fox & Friends to discuss ongoing probes by congressional committees into his family's finances. Using a popular refrain from his father and the president's supporters, Trump said Democratic efforts amounted to "presidential harassment 101."
"And you know, my father always talked on the campaign trail about the deep state, right? And this is the deep state," he argued.
"They don't actually want to do their job. They don't want to fix health care. They don't want to fix immigration. They don't want to fix anything else," the president's son said. "They just want to subpoena everybody that has ever met Trump."
The businessman complained that his own finances were being looked into, and used sarcastic examples to express what he believed to be the absurdity of Democratic queries.
"It's not just my father," he said. "It's: 'Eric, I want to see all your bank records. I want to know how much, you know, Laura spent on baby formula for Luke. I want to know, you know, how many beers Tiffany had on a Friday afternoon in Georgetown.' I mean, these are literally the things they are asking for."
Laura Trump is Eric's wife and Luke is their son. Tiffany is the president's youngest daughter, who is currently attending Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. The so-called deep state—an idea that has been promoted by conspiracy theorists, popular culture and the president—is the concept that a small group of people work to secretly manipulate and control government policy.
As Trump pointed out, although with significant exaggeration, Democrats have launched wide-ranging probes into the president, his family and their businesses. Despite the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month probe, critics of the president argue that he obstructed justice by interfering in the investigation. Mueller's report did not establish that the president or his associates had conspired with Russia during the 2016 campaign, but the document laid out a case suggesting the president had committed a crime by interfering—and attempting to interfere —with the special counsel.
Demcoratic House committee chairs have issued subpoenas for a range of financial documents related to President Trump and his affairs. Numerous associates and administration officials have also been subpoenaed by congressional leaders to testify. Trump's lawyers have launched lawsuits against the subpoenas, in a bid to block congressional efforts. The president's legal team has argued that the subpoenas are part of an "all-out political war" launched by Democrats
Last week, Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani blasted the subpoenas as "illegitimate." He said: "everybody in the country knows they're prejudiced, they're biased, they're like the judge that decides you're going to die and then gives you a trial."
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