Blanche says criminal investigations of Democrats are possible
President Donald Trump said in a social-media post after last week’s midterm elections that investigative requests Democrats had already made were “extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable.” Attorney General Todd Blanche, appearing on Sunday news shows alongside congressional Democrats to discuss the repercussions from the elections, said criminal investigations of Democrats were possible. House and Senate Democrats were preparing investigations into the executive branch next year.
In the same appearances, Blanche said: “They are not allowed to just go around threatening existing members of the administration, to go around threatening companies, and that’s what President Trump is extremely worried about and he should be.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., who is poised to chair the House Oversight Committee in the next Congress, said he was preparing investigations into what he calls the “Trump crime family.” Garcia said Democrats were not going to be intimidated. “The days of us not fighting back are over,” Garcia said.
Democrats have made clear that impeachment is an option. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said he supports a pending resolution from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and that Democrats would discuss it when they return to the Capitol this week. “Hegseth has got to go,” Jeffries said. “I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution.” Hegseth dismissed the impeachment push in a video as “all about the politics of personal destruction,” saying it “won’t work with me.”
Jeffries said if there are people who have been “shortchanging the American people, screwing over the American people, or stealing from the American people, then they need to be held accountable in a manner consistent with Congress’ role, constitutionally.”
About 7 in 10 voters nationally said Congress was not doing enough to provide checks and balances on the presidency, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters.
Within the Democratic party, many members said delivering on the party’s central promise to voters — actions to lower the cost of living — must take precedence. Some feared that Tuesday’s House and Senate wins, which gave them majorities, would prove fleeting if conflict with Trump defined the agenda.
Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state in 94 years, said his campaign was about trying to bring people together and that he did not want the next two years spent “dividing our country further.” “I’m not as interested in impeachment as setting up guardrails,” Hamilton said. He said some investigations are necessary and Democrats “have to look at what’s happened in Washington.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, said he wants to hold Trump accountable but warned there was only so much time. “We cannot spend all of our time investigating Trump,” Sanders said. “We’ve got to stand up for working-class families, make a real difference in their lives.”
Jeffries, who is on the cusp of becoming the nation’s first Black House speaker, said on election night that he would be ready to work with the other side of the aisle “whenever and wherever possible to deliver real results.” On Sunday, he criticized Trump’s choice of longtime adviser Stephen Miller to succeed Susie Wiles as Trump’s chief of staff, calling Miller an “awful choice” and casting doubt on the prospect of working with him. “There’s not going to be an opportunity, certainly, to work with Stephen Miller and what he represents. And we’re committed to forcefully pushing back against the extremism that they may try to continue to unleash on the American people,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Democrats across the ideological spectrum have criticized the appointment of Miller, who was an architect of Trump’s mass deportation policies that became an issue in the midterm elections. Nationally, about 6 in 10 voters said the administration’s actions on immigration enforcement had “gone too far,” according to The AP Voter Poll.
At least two incoming Democratic senators expressed some reservations Sunday about Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who is expected to be reelected to his post after leading the party back to the majority. Hamilton said he has told Schumer, who is currently running unopposed, that he means no disrespect but that the New Yorker is a polarizing figure in Kansas and that Hamilton is aiming for someone less divisive. “What I’d be looking for is a leader who can lead from the center, somebody who can bring Republicans and Democrats together,” Hamilton said. “It feels like it is a time for fresh and new ideas and somebody who can unite us instead of dividing us.” Hamilton said he wants to get to know the other Democratic senators better before making any recommendations.
Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, whom Schumer did not back in the Democratic primary, said he had been committed to Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland but acknowledged that Van Hollen did not appear to be running for the post. El-Sayed said he and Schumer, who put $67 million into El-Sayed’s general election campaign, “figured out how to work together” after the primary. “The question to me is, who wants to be the leader who’s going to make sure that we deliver on the mandate that we just got?” El-Sayed said.
Blanche was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” Garcia was on CNN, Jeffries spoke on ABC’s “This Week,” Hamilton and Sanders were on CNN and NBC, and El-Sayed appeared on ABC. Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to the report.