Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives discussed plans to launch investigations into the Trump administration after retaking the House Tuesday.
The Huffington Post reports the new Democratic majority plans to take on an oversight role. Controversial policies such as the nationwide voter suppression targeting Black and brown voters and family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Muslim ban and others will all be on the table.
Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), a frequent Trump critic, said he believes Democrats need to take a closer look at the president's finances.
“I plan to shine a light on waste, fraud and abuse in the Trump administration,” Cummings said.
He will have a chance to do just that as the new chair of the House Oversight Committee.
The representative from Maryland added, “I want to probe senior administration officials across the government who have abused their positions of power and wasted taxpayer money, as well as President Trump’s decisions to act in his own financial self-interest rather than the best interests of the American people.”
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who will likely be the next speaker of the House offered a more measure vision of the next two years at a Democratic rally in Washington Tuesday. The party leader expressed interest in working across the aisle to bring the nation together, The Washington Post reports. She promised Democrats would not move to impeach the president but also emphasized the importance of acting as a check on Trump's power.
"We will drain the swamp of dark interest money in our elections," Pelosi said. "Because when we do, Americans have greater confidence in everything their Congress works on from health care to taxes to guns to clean air to clean water for our children, when they know that the people's interest will prevail."
NPR notes Republicans believe the promised investigations will do more harm to Democrats than Trump or their party. Some have even begun to draw comparisons to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which saw allegations of investigative overreach hurt then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
"We impeached [Clinton], his numbers went up, we went down," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Wednesday. "Democrats will have to decide just how much presidential harassment is good strategy. I'm not sure it'll work for them."
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