Blanche says criminal investigations of Democrats are possible

Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday, Nov. 8, that criminal investigations of Democrats are possible, five days after Democrats won majorities in the House and Senate in the midterm elections. He made the remarks on the Sunday news shows, according to The Associated Press, which reported that President Donald Trump and the Justice Department are taking a combative stance toward the incoming majority.

Trump set the tone on social media, where he wrote that investigative requests Democrats have already made are “extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable,” the AP reported. Blanche, who appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” echoed the president.

“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,” Blanche said, according to the AP.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., is poised to chair the House Oversight Committee in the next Congress. The AP reported that he is preparing investigations into what he calls the “Trump crime family” and that he said Democrats will not be intimidated. “The days of us not fighting back are over,” Garcia said.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is on track to become the first Black speaker of the House, spoke on ABC’s “This Week.” Officials who have been “shortchanging the American people, screwing over the American people, or stealing from the American people” need to be held accountable “in a manner consistent with Congress’ role, constitutionally,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries said he supports a pending resolution from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” he said, adding that Democrats would discuss it when they return to the Capitol this week. In a video, Hegseth dismissed the push as “all about the politics of personal destruction” and said it “won’t work with me,” according to the AP.

Jeffries also criticized Trump’s choice of longtime adviser Stephen Miller to succeed Susie Wiles as chief of staff. He called Miller an “awful choice” and said Democrats are “committed to forcefully pushing back against the extremism that they may try to continue to unleash on the American people.” The AP described Miller as an architect of the administration’s mass deportation effort.

Democrats are not unified on how far to go. Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from his state in 94 years, said he is “not as interested in impeachment as setting up guardrails.” He added that he understands some investigations are necessary and that Democrats “have to look at what’s happened in Washington,” the AP reported.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, said he wants to hold Trump accountable but that time is limited. “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.” The AP reported that many Democrats are warning that delivering on their central promise to voters, lowering the cost of living, must take precedence over investigations.

Hamilton also told the AP he has raised concerns with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who is expected to be reelected to the post and is running unopposed. Hamilton said Schumer is a polarizing figure in Kansas and that he is looking for “a leader who can lead from the center.” Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, whom Schumer did not back in the Democratic primary, said the two “figured out how to work together” afterward. The AP reported that Schumer put $67 million into El-Sayed’s general election campaign.

The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters, found that about 7 in 10 voters nationally say Congress is not doing enough to provide checks and balances on the presidency. About 6 in 10 said the administration’s actions on immigration enforcement had “gone too far.”

The AP wrote that the exchanges set up a showdown that will likely define Trump’s remaining two years in office and test the power of Congress to check the White House. Jeffries, asked on election night about working with Trump, said he would work with the other side of the aisle “whenever and wherever possible to deliver real results.”