Posted on 11/11/2018 12:16:36 PM PST by yesthatjallen
A trio of likely House committee chairmen and prospective Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday laid out their oversight investigation strategy.
Democrats secured sweeping victories this month in House races to secure a majority in the lower chamber of Congress. The party will soon wield the ability to launch investigations and subpoena witnesses as a result, setting up a potentially acrimonious next two years with the White House.
Democrats on Sunday previewed some of those likely investigations, starting with whether Trump's actions impact special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and including possible interference with the media and the census. The White House is also likely bracing for investigations into Trump’s tax returns and possible violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee set the stage for an immediate fight between Democrats and the White House when he signaled he would call on Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to appear before lawmakers.
“Our very first witness on -- after January 3, we will subpoena Mr. -- or we will summon, if necessary, subpoena Mr. Whitaker,” Nadler said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Nadler questioned Whitaker’s qualifications for the job, and highlighted his past comments in support of curbing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
"The president's dismissal of Attorney General Sessions, and his appointment of Whitaker, who is a complete political lackey, is a real threat to the integrity of that investigation," Nadler said. "That investigation is of utmost importance in making sure that we adhere to the rule of law and that the administration is held accountable."
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said on "Fox News Sunday" that the president is ready to work with Democrats on trade, immigration and infrastructure.
"But that's a question for the Democrats, too," she said. "Are they going to be investigating or legislating? Are they going to be trying to impeach him or talk about infrastructure?"
Pelosi, who has repeatedly expressed confidence in her chances of being elected Speaker despite some internal resistance, said the party will be "strategic" in how it carries out investigations. She insisted the party would not use its newfound majority to investigate for political purposes, but rather "to seek truth."
"We are coming to do something that is very important for our country; a more open Congress with accountability to the public, with a seeking bipartisanship where we can find it, stand our ground where we can't," she said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
President Trump has appeared hostile to the threat of Democrats investigating his White House, warning that he would adopt a "warlike posture" if necessary. He has suggested he would respond to Democratic probes in the House by enlisting the GOP-controlled Senate to conduct investigations of its own.
House Democratic leaders will additionally be forced to deal with factions within their own party. Some lawmakers have already supported efforts to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, but top ranking Democrats on Sunday were careful to balance their intent to conduct oversight with their desire to deal with the White House on legislative priorities.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, rattled off the Trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to the Census, the relocation of the FBI building and drug prices as priorities for the committee in the next session of Congress.
However, he cautioned that he would be hesitant to resort to subpoenas to get answers.
"I'm not going to be handing out subpoenas like somebody's handing out candy on Halloween…I take subpoenas very seriously," Cummings said on ABC's This Week."
"And I plan to, if I have to use them, they will be used in a methodical way and it must be in the public's interest," he added.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) cautioned on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the party’s message on issues like health care can’t get lost amid a flurry of potential subpoenas and investigations.
"Let's face it, the investigations are sexy. They're interesting," Schiff said. “The legislative process is less so. It's much less dramatic. But nonetheless in terms of importance to the American people making sure that they can provide for their families, that they can get health care, they can keep their health care, that has to be priority number one."
Schiff has been among Trump’s most outspoken critics, and has indicated previously that he intends to restart the committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He added on Sunday that his committee would hold Whitaker accountable if the new acting attorney general attempts to influence Mueller's investigation in any way.
He also told "Axios on HBO" in an episode airing later Sunday that the House will investigate if Trump used "instruments of state power to punish the press."
Congresswomen-elect Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), who defeated Republican incumbents on Tuesday, emphasized that Democrats need to carry out their oversight role in the next session of Congress, but neither cited it as the key issue they will be focused on.
"We can walk and chew gum," Slotkin said on NBC. "We can protect American values and hold accountability for the executive branch, but if we can't do things on health care and infrastructure, we're going to lose people, especially in the Midwest."
I wonder what happens to such bullies as the Dems who strut around, heads in the air, flexing muscles and belittling and threatening all sides?
And making intense enemies?
Maybe it goes on and on and everyone meekly surrenders America to them.
And maybe not.
They keep throwing everything at Trump, find what rallies the thugs, and run with it.
secured sweeping victories - thru unmitigated fraud is more like.
The margin in the house is 227 to 198
435/29 = 0.06% - a razor thin margin. Certainly no “mandate”
Typically, Republicans kowtow to them in committee and elsewhere, and readily accept the Democrat and media view that Democrat subpoenas are direct orders from God for Republicans to appear. Of course, this is quite unlike the prevailing view of subpoenas from Republicans as stage whispers that can be contemptuously ignored.
Maybe things will be different under President Trump, though I still expect many House Republicans to assume groveling position even during the lame duck session. Certainly Paul Ryan and his homies will be bending in all directions to accede to every whim if they haven't already begun.
The author misspelled ‘stretch’.
Trump tried to nip voter fraud in the bud when first elected but was blocked by the courts.
Let’s hope he learned his lesson on this.
He should respect court opinions as much as Democrats do when it comes to vote integrity.
Whittaker is a political lackey. It’s their hypocracy that pisses me off the most.
Best scenario is impeachment vote day after democrats take power.
Obstruct..investigate..generally waste money.
MSM will continue to provide bombastic headlines.
“We are coming to do something that is very important for our country; a more open Congress with accountability to the public, with a seeking bipartisanship where we can find it, stand our ground where we can’t,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
That is the formula the Democrats follow when making laws - the founders were so very prescient ...
How soon before we break out the rifles and ammo? We should start a “Doomsday Clock” here on FR, so to set the minutes to the next civil war.
In substance and intent the Dems are Lucifer’s Legions, but over the next two years they will show the GOP how political combat is waged. We might choose to hide under the covers but the fact remains that The Left has been winning every cultural/political/economic contest over the past dozen decades. We now face a polity that s not center-right no matter how much we will posture in that regard. When it comes to the foundational disputes America is and has been a center-left/far-left aggregate for decades. The only arguments are about the pace of devolution.
That is the terrain, it’s not what I want.
Go for it, show the Republicans how it is done.
Well Zerohissef laid the blueprint for what to do and not do. On his tax returns, DJT should tell them to pound sand.
He should not refuse to comply on other issues but should slow walk everything. Hopefully the 2 yrs will pass without much damage and maybe gains as at least 5% of folks see what complete and total pieces of shot dumblecrat really are.
Depressing.
Let’s not give up hope.
Yes, a lawsusit to save Acosta filed by the corrupt and contemptible CNN, probably more election races to be upended by newly made choices added onto blank ballots by Dem officials and operatives, anyone who disagrees with them afraid to go into a restaurant or now their own homes. And more by the hour.
Next will be Bill Ayres SDS style bomb threats or actual bombs.
One exploded about 3/4 of a mile from my apt. in 1968 set by a leftist antiestablishment operative. It totally destroyed a building. I had six months earlier decided against an apt. in the house about twenty feet behind it. He went to prison.
The leftists set themselves up as judge and executioners when they actually have low character, barely any knowledge of the world around them, and no right at all to judge us. In the large 60s around here you could often read by the light of burning police cars upside down and stores that had been looted. And I moved from the City of Detroit after the July 1967 riots to be in a more peaceful city. Ha.
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