McKinley Calls for Rangel to Step Down from Ways and Means

Press Release

Wheeling businessman and Republican Congressional candidate for the 1st District of WV, David McKinley, is calling on Congressman Charlie Rangel to step down immediately from his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in light of the ethics committee's determination that he violated House rules. McKinley is also asking Congressman Alan Mollohan to join him in this effort.

In the past, members of Rangel's own political party made the same demands whenever Republicans were similarly admonished by the ethics committee.

"Hopefully Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer will not play double standards in this situation," added McKinley.

"While I would hope that Alan Mollohan will ask Congressman Rangel to step down, it is doubtful since Mollohan has already voted to let Rangel keep his chairmanship twice," said McKinley. He added, "Perhaps Mollohan is concerned that he too could be stripped of his own chairmanship if the on-going ethics probe into Mollohan's own behavior finds he broke House rules as well."

McKinley concluded by saying, "The bottom line in Rangel's case is that someone other than the Congressman paid for his trip to the Caribbean. Rangel claims he was unaware it was a corporation. Regardless of whether he knew or didn't know it was a corporation, how many Americans have trips paid for by someone else? And how many Americans would take the trip not knowing who paid for it?"

Besides the obvious elitism displayed by Rangel in his free trip to the Caribbean, he still faces additional ethical questions pending before the House ethics committee regarding his personal finances, omissions on his financial disclosure reports by a veteran politician, and his use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name.

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