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Top Democrats are weighing how harshly they would go after corporations that have courted President Donald Trump’s approval, if they retake the House in November.
As businesses greet House Democrats’ rising midterm prospects with prep for a flurry of subpoenas and information requests, the party’s lawmakers are already drawing CEOs a roadmap for their potential majority. Judiciary Committee Democrats have sent missives since last year to Paramount, Hewlett-Packard and Alphabet, and Oversight Committee Democrats have homed in on fundraising for the White House’s ballroom renovation.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the Oversight panel’s top Democrat, told Semafor he would focus on alleged corruption in the Trump administration, Jeffrey Epstein, immigration enforcement, and even cost-of-living issues. He said his office has already contacted some corporations about a future investigative agenda.
“There’s opportunities to look at not just corporations that we think are enabling some of Trump’s corruption, but certainly corporations that are not supporting American families and not really focusing on affordability,” Garcia said.
It’s a departure from the traditional practice of minority parties in Congress to not get too far ahead of themselves planning for power they haven’t yet won. But Democrats’ bigger risk may be in failing to learn from history.
The corporate investigations they’re eyeing could lead to a retread of 2019, when Democrats also swept into the House majority only to encounter deep internal divisions over how far to go in conducting oversight while also passing their own agenda.
The shadow of Trump’s first term will hang over Democrats’ decisions. Democratic leaders are loath to engage in discussions about impeaching him, particularly since they would lack the Senate votes to convict in even the rosiest midterm scenario.
But the more they talk about future investigations, the closer Democrats come to an investigation that could open an impeachment Pandora’s Box.
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Judiciary Committee Democrat, said he was interested in potential violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids the president from receiving gifts from foreign governments or US taxpayers. It was a major Democratic focus — and a potential impeachment article — during Trump’s first term.
“The cardinal, original sin of Trump was to decide that he was going to use the presidency as a profit-making enterprise in his first term, and I would say that Congress should have impeached him for receiving millions and millions of dollars from foreign governments,” Raskin said.
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Trump is already warning, despite top Democrats’ clear disinterest in it, that his opponents would pursue impeachment if they can flip the House.
“They’ll find something” to justify it, the president told podcaster Will Cain last month.
So far, however, Democrats have clearly shown more interest in investigating high-profile mergers like the Hewlett-Packard takeover of Juniper Networks, and the ouster of former Trump Justice Department antitrust chief Gail Slater.
“Once we take power, whoever the president is, we’re going to break up your companies,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told Semafor. “So all the investment you did to create these mergers are going to be for naught. Your investors are going to be pissed at you, and you’re likely going to end up getting fired as the CEO because you wasted so much money and corrupted yourself in the process.”
Republicans in the House are repeatedly amplifying the prospect of Trump-linked investigations, into corporations or the president himself, as a reason to deny Democrats control of a chamber that they would use to pursue grievances at the expense of policymaking.
“If we find wrongdoing, we will do our part in investigating. But right now, we just see a lot of smoke and mirrors and a lot of gamesmanship by the Democrats,” said Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.
Room for Disagreement
While Garcia and Raskin addressed their future plans more openly, plenty of other Democrats are careful to avoid predicting the future with the midterms still months away and are quick to note their party will need to present its own agenda too.
“We have to do oversight and accountability, and we have to talk about the affordability agenda, how we’re going to make life better for people if we are given the opportunity to lead, and if we’re given the opportunity to govern,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the third-ranking House Democrat.
They’re also comfortable talking about impeaching at least one Trump official. House Democratic leaders have already said they want to go after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after federal immigration agents killed two US citizens.
Nicholas Wu’s view
Democrats may bite off more than they can chew by kicking off a host of investigations should they win the House back.
They faced bruising internal battles over their Trump-focused probes in the leadup to his first impeachment in 2019, and they’ll face difficult choices over where to train their investigative tools this time around, too.
“I don’t think you can do like 100 [companies] but I think you can do three and start with that,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., of potential antimonopoly investigations. “You can’t do everything, but you’ve got to pick a few of the worst and focus there.”
Notable
- MSNOW reported on House Democrats’ corporate investigative plans earlier this month, describing them as “a recognition that the executive branch is no longer responsive to congressional oversight.”
David Weigel contributed to this report.