Some GOP senators express concerns about the Qatar -while others reject concerns

Cnn
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Several Republican senators expressed concerns that the Trump administration is planning to use a luxury jet from the royal family Katar as Air Force One, which determined the potential for security and legal risks.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, member of the Senate -Gop management team, said that President Donald Trump and the White House “have to” look at “the constitutionality of the problem.

“I would look for mistakes that I would check,” said Capito.

Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri argued that it would be “better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet in the United States”.

Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana said he had to research whether it is legally adopted. “We should follow the law,” he said.

In view of the massive value of a Boeing 747-8, the step is unprecedented and raises considerable ethical and legal questions. A Qatarian official said that the plane was technically released from the Qatarian Ministry of Defense to the Pentagon and describe it more as a transaction to the government to government instead of a personal one. The Ministry of Defense will then retrofit the aircraft for the use of the president with security features and changes.

Trump said on Sunday evening that the Ministry of Defense is planning to accept the luxury jet as a “gift free of charge” on social media. He said that the multimillion dollar -Jet would temporarily use “in a very public and transparent transaction”.

The press spokesman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said on Monday that the legal details for the acceptance of a Boeing 747-8 jet to replace the Air Force One as a gift from the Qatar Royal Family will be “still worked out”.

“Every donation to this government is always fully carried out with the law,” she added.

Ethics experts have expressed concerns about the potential step and questioned whether the acceptance of the aircraft is violated against the emrocers' clause of the constitution that prevents a president from obtaining a “emolument” or profit from a “king, prince or foreign state”, unless the congress agrees.

Not everyone in the party criticized the move and some defended the Trump administration.

Senator Tommy Tuberville told CNN that “Free is free is good. You know that we don't have a lot of money at the moment to buy such things.”

Alabama's Republican said that he had previously flown to Air Force and the plane was “old” and added: “If it was legal for him to accept this gift and be able to fly with it in the next four years or three and a half years, it will be great.”

When asked whether he believes that the Qataris wants something for it, Tuberville judged: “I don't think we can give them a lot except one of our allies.”

He also pointed out problems of the supply chain to justify the transaction, and said in his state, which has a great presence of Boeing production: “You can currently not get a plane for about six or seven years.”

“We have to get Boeing going again. I think that's one of the most important points. But at the end of the day, if it would save us money, it would be great,” he said.

Senator Markwayne Mulllin from Oklahoma said reporters and asked about the Qatar -Jet that it was the “stupid” problem and he has “Zero problem”, with the president accepting him.

“We received gifts – we can return through land gifts and give gifts through these countries in the past. Why is it a big deal?” He said to reporters.

Mullin was reporting that the aircraft went to Trump's Trump library at the end of his term, and argued that other presidents had airplanes in their libraries – even though he admitted that he did not know whether it came from Qataris.

“Do you think it is compromised because he gets an airplane that the president could buy personally?” he asked reporter.

Montana's Republican Senator, Steve Daines, said “You can't go free” when you were asked about the offer of Qataris.

He added that he expects the Ministry of Justice to look at the legal questions that are raised, “and they will think about it.”

“It will be for the use of the government,” he added.

The Senator of North Carolina, Thom Tillis, did not comment, even though he found that the jet “must be categorically transferred to the US government” and not to the personal trump card.

“I don't think emolument comes in, but I am not a lawyer. I will leave it to others to do that,” he said, referring to the emolutionary clause in the constitution.

“I don't know how it would be different from Qatar, who would make a decision to write a check to the US government -if this actually goes to the US government,” he added.

The majority leader of the Senate, John Thune, would not say on Monday whether it is ethical or constitutional for the Trump government to accept the Jet as a gift from Qatar, and said that he had to learn more details about the potential offer that he described as “hypothetical”.

“I don't know enough yet and I don't know if there was an offer. I am sure whether and when we have more information, we will sort all of this. But at this point it is obviously still a hypothetics,” he said.