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“President Obama lends important muscle to the investigation that must begin now in any involvement by any foreign agent in the 2016 election. With Senators McCain and Graham announcing hearings after the first of the year, the President’s investigation can inform the congressional efforts and ensure that this effort is not about partisan power games, but about preserving and protecting the integrity of our elections by learning everything we can through these investigations and improving security moving forward.”

A bipartisan group of organizations and individuals, many of whom specialize in ethical and conflicts of interest issues, today called on President-elect Trump to divest his businesses into a true blind trust managed by an independent trustee, or the equivalent.

Representation2020, Common Cause and the Center for Responsive Politics have released a new report revealing the systemic disparity in funding for female candidates running for open seats by PACs, individual donors and major parties. Women are more likely to win open seat races than women challenging an incumbent. In addition, Republican women are likely to face additional barriers and increased opposition funding.

President-elect Trump’s promise to leave his businesses “in total” to focus on the presidency needs to be backed up by details that demonstrate that the President and his administration will focus solely on what is best for the American people, not what advances Trump’s business empire.

Common Cause supports reviewing election results and the right of candidates and others to call for recounts. The recount process is critical to adding necessary transparency to the election process, identifying problems, and increasing voter confidence in the election outcome.

Americans expect their President to be completely above reproach on ethics and transparency, and to put the business of the nation first. Donald Trump’s actions and rhetoric to date have been tone deaf to legitimate concerns raised about the myriad ways his business empire raises serious conflict of interest problems during the transition, as well as when he takes office. The President-elect has made a series of troubling statements stating that president cannot have conflicts of interest.