Garcia oversight and Jeffries’s third-impeachment choice hinge on House control
California Rep. Robert Garcia, set to lead the House Oversight Committee if Democrats win the House, had set out an oversight agenda, while potential Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would confront whether to pursue a third impeachment against Trump. Donald Trump’s campaign paired a $5,000 payment promise with a National Mall closing argument.
In recent days, Garcia had made clear that he planned to dig into the administration’s immigration and detention policies. He made an unannounced visit to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Southern California and held a news conference outlining his agenda to “demand accountability” for ICE’s tactics. His other priorities include the Trump family’s business dealings, the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and broader allegations of corporate corruption.
If Democrats won the House, potential Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would confront whether to pursue an unprecedented third impeachment against Trump, who was impeached twice during his first term and acquitted by the Senate both times. Democratic lawmakers signaled that they might instead go after top Cabinet members, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom the Associated Press described as one of Trump’s most stridently loyal administration officials and who has played a key role in the Iran war that Democrats have decried. “I’m here to say, one of the first things we’re going to do in the majority, we’re going to run Pete Hegseth out of town,” Jeffries said at an October rally.
The Associated Press reported that senior Democrats anticipating a majority in at least one chamber had telegraphed a vast set of possible investigative targets: administration policies, personnel conduct, and interactions between government officials and private corporations that tried to wield influence with the White House. If Democrats took control of Congress, the AP said the rest of Trump’s time in office would likely be consumed by Democratic-led investigations into the administration and his business dealings, possibly along with another impeachment.
A Democratic majority would give House Democrats control of committees, larger budgets and staffs, and subpoena powers that could compel the administration to respond to Congress. The White House could reprise its strategy from Trump’s first administration, when it slow-walked congressional requests for documents and testimony and asserted executive privilege over certain information.
Trump was also bracing for major legislative fights and said he had a “strong veto.” “I hope that that won’t be the case, but if it is, that’s happened before with many presidents,” Trump told reporters last week. “And you have strong veto and you end up working out deals.”
Campaign strategy targets midterm history
Trump’s personal pitch for Republican candidates included a flurry of rallies across the United States during the final weeks, increasingly in deeply Republican areas where the apparent need to shore up the party’s candidates was seen as a warning sign about the national mood. In an attempt to buck the historical tendency of a president’s party to lose seats in midterms, he staged a two-day, Trump-focused Republican convention in Dallas, led supporters in a repeat-after-me pledge to vote and promised to send $5,000 to every adult if his party won in November. The Associated Press described the payment proposal as dubious.
The Associated Press described Trump’s decision to place himself front and center on voters’ minds as a major gamble. His political team believed personalizing the midterms would activate “Make America Great Again” supporters who might otherwise be less likely to turn out when Trump was not an official candidate. Democrats were eager to watch the unpopular president insert himself fully, believing the strategy had served as an effective reminder of who should be blamed for the state of the economy, which voters said was their top concern.
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., campaigned in key battlegrounds this fall, including Iowa, Georgia and Texas. “Trump’s desire to have everyone think that he’s on the ballot? Like, it’s happening,” Kim said. “Everyone is thinking about him and the harm that he has done to them directly.”
If Trump defied the political odds and Republicans retained majorities, the Associated Press reported that he would emerge more powerful and with a stronger grip on his party. Republicans would owe much of their success in retaining majorities to Trump’s monthlong barnstorming of primarily conservative states where he remains very popular with voters. Trump planned to spend Election Day at the White House.
If voters instead delivered a broad Republican rebuke, the AP said Trump would be left with dramatically diminished political capital at home and abroad. His repeated urging to “pretend I’m on the ballot” all but guaranteed that the results would be seen as a referendum on him. The AP also said the political spotlight would begin shifting to Republicans and Democrats vying to replace him during the 2028 presidential campaign.
The Associated Press reported that Trump campaigned aggressively in the final weeks to keep Republican majorities on Capitol Hill because he knew what the consequences would be if Democrats seized power, noting that he had faced a Democratic-led House during the latter half of his first term. At times, Trump shrugged off the prospect of losing power in Congress, and in Oklahoma he told a crowd that Democrats, if they took power, could impeach him again. “I’ve become very good at beating them in impeachment,” Trump said. The AP also reported that Trump was keenly aware of the political power he drew from having a foil who leveraged opposition to consolidate support within his party and boost fundraising.
Trump delivers National Mall closing speech
Trump’s closing argument was at the National Mall, where he stood before the Reflecting Pool and spent much of a winding, hourlong speech promoting his beautification of Washington, D.C. “So, we have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation,” Trump said. “But for that, you don’t have enough time.”
The Associated Press described Trump’s closing message as disjointed. On the campaign trail, the winding remarks he typically delivered for 90 minutes included some promotion of local Republican nominees but plenty of free association that drifted from issues voters cared about, such as the high cost of fuel. Trump frequently discussed renovations he had made to Washington and the White House, including his construction of a giant ballroom.
Trump had lately focused on the muscular builds of some Republican candidates, regaling crowds in North Carolina, Michigan and Kentucky with descriptions of Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s impressive backside. He also embraced positions at odds with a broad range of voter concerns, claiming communities that reject data centers will end up “backwards and poor” and calling affordability “a hoax” and a word “made up by the Democrats.”