Democrats convene T-Mobile CEO for stays at Trump hotel

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Legere and Sprint's CEO, Marcelo Claure, testified before the Regulatory, Commercial and Competition Law Tribunals Subcommittee to answer questions about the transaction. The Washington Post was the first to report on T-Mobile's spending at the Trump Hotel.

Legere and a handful of other company executives registered at the Trump Hotel the day after the announcement of the transaction in April 2018 and some have returned several times since then. T-Mobile has spent $ 195,000 on stays and meetings at the hotel over the past 11 months, the company said.

"Do you understand the point of view of that? What does it look like? It looks like T-Mobile is trying to win favor with the White House," said Rep. Hank Johnson. from Georgia.

"The optics of my stay at the Trump Hotel has not changed in 10 years," he said.

In a letter sent last month to two Democratic legislators, he explained that he had chosen to stay there for reasons of "availability, security, meeting rooms and proximity to the activities planned in this meeting. city".

The amount spent at the Trump International Hotel accounted for 14% of the $ 1.4 million spent in Washington hotels by T-Mobile during this period, the company said.

But that did not please all members of the Democrat-controlled House panel.

"I raise this issue simply because we unfortunately have a situation in which the President has not disclosed his business interests and it seems that you may be trying to influence the President for what he's doing." "Implies in something in which he really should not be involved," said representative Pramila Jayapal. , Democrat of the state of Washington.

It was no secret that President Donald Trump opposed the merger between AT & T and Time Warner (CNN is a division of WarnerMedia, created as a result of this merger). The Ministry of Justice has sued to block the acquisition.

President David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, has called the proposed T-Mobile-Sprint merger a "critical test" for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.

Is he "genuinely dedicated to promoting competition or is he only opposing mergers when the White House tells him to do it?" he asked during his opening statement.

The Department of Justice has not sought to block a similar merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox, owner of Fox News.

The White House has not responded to a request for comment for this story.

The Republicans of the Judiciary Committee have criticized the Democrats for questioning Legere on his stays at the hotel.

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"Mr. Legere's place of residence in Washington is totally independent of whether this merger is in the public interest or not," said Wisconsin Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican member.

Legere and Claure argued that their merger was necessary to make them competitive in the creation of a 5G wireless network, especially since China has already aggressively launched into this space . They also promised to lower prices if they were allowed to merge and that the agreement would create thousands of jobs.

But critics have trouble believing these claims. Christopher Shelton, president of the Communications Workers of America union, said during his testimony at Tuesday's hearing that he was expecting the merger to cut jobs and lower wages. .

Congress has no say in the approval of the merger, but some lawmakers have urged the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Ministry to block the deal.

In December, the proposal lifted a major hurdle, but it still needs to be approved. The companies plan to merge as planned in the first half of this year.

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