Seth A. Richardson

Reno Gazette-Journal

U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., broke ranks with many of his Republican colleagues when he said President Donald Trump should release his tax returns to the public.

“I think the president ought to release his tax returns, if that’s what you’re trying to say,” Amodei said in a meeting between him and the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board.

Currently, no law exists that states someone running for president has to release his or her returns, but customarily, every candidate who has run for office since Richard Nixon has done so.

Trump’s detractors state it’s more imperative that he do so considering his large business dealings with foreign entities as well as his desire to implement some kind of tax reform. Without the president’s tax returns, it’s nearly impossible to see how any reform proposal would affect his finances.

Amodei’s stance is outside many of his fellow GOP lawmakers, who have either defended the president for not releasing his tax returns either during the election or now that he is in office or declined to comment.

Amodei, Trump’s Nevada campaign chairman during the election, also said he would consider voting in favor of or introducing a bill that would require the president to release the returns.

“The only thing that I think can save enough of this process to get something actually done instead of an endless series of attacks and counterattacks is the transparency of the hearing process,” Amodei said regarding both the president’s returns and the impending congressional debate on tax reform. “To the extent that you continue to skip that, you essentially turn it into a political free-for-all and I’m unaware of a political free-for-all that ended with a policy win. Because, basically, the policy gets lost.”

Amodei also said he was in favor of some kind of special investigation into the Trump presidential campaign’s connections to Russia. The ongoing investigation by the FBI, which has plagued Trump since the election, was recently thrust back into the spotlight after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the head of the investigation.

“Should Trump have fired him? I don’t know,” Amodei said. “I just know that Comey had become as controversial in his own right whether he’d been fired or not.”

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While Amodei said Comey might not be suited to head the FBI because he is such a polarizing figure, the congressman does think a special investigation of some kind is of merit. However, he thinks there should be some kind of timeframe for it, not wanting it to become a never ending “fourth branch” of government.

“I think the fact that both sides are claiming uber-virginity in terms of their judgment of the issue will continue to paralyze us on the issues that really, really count,” Amodei said. “And by the way, if it turns out they did something wrong, then obviously that would really, really count.”

“But all we’ve got right now is who can yell louder on a different day or whose contributor or consultant can come in and look calmer and more intelligent,” Amodei continued. “Quite frankly, that doesn’t do anything.”

As for his plans for the future, Amodei killed any speculation that he might be considering a run for attorney general. In January, he declined to run for governor, but left the door open for another statewide run.

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Right now, Amodei said the plan is to run for his seat again, but he would make a final decision later in the year.

“There’s been some speculation. Quite frankly, as a guy who is getting older, who loves the whole state, I have no desire to campaign outside CD2,” he said.

Seth A. Richardson covers politics for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Like him on Facebook here or follow him on Twitter at @SethARichardson.