President Donald Trump and his Department of Justice are taking a combative stance toward Democrats after their election victories in the midterms, signaling intense conflict to come as lawmakers prepare aggressive investigations into the executive branch next year.
Trump set the tone, declaring on social media that investigative requests already made by Democrats are “extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable.” Attorney General Todd Blanche echoed the Republican president and said criminal investigations of Democrats are possible.
“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 as he and congressional Democrats appeared on the Sunday news shows to discuss the repercussions from last week’s elections.
Rep. Robert Garcia, who is poised to chair the powerful House Oversight Committee in the next Congress, is preparing investigations into what he calls the “Trump crime family.” He said Democrats are not going to be intimidated.
“The days of us not fighting back are over,” said Garcia, D-Calif.
The early rhetoric sets up a showdown ahead that will likely define Trump’s remaining two years in office and test the power of Congress to put a check on the White House. About 7 in 10 voters nationally say Congress is 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.
Democrats have made clear that impeachment is an option.
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,” said Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Some Democrats are worried about overreach
But the investigative onslaught is also a source of tension for Democrats, with many warning that delivering on their central promise to voters — actions to lower the cost of living — must take precedence.
Some fear their resounding wins Tuesday that have given them healthy majorities in the House and Senate will prove fleeting if conflict with Trump defines the agenda.
Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, the first Democrat elected to the chamber from Kansas in 94 years, expressed skepticism about impeachment, saying his campaign was about trying to bring people together. He said he does not want the next two years to be spent “dividing our country further.”
WATCH: Rep. Garcia says voters gave Democrats a mandate to pursue accountability
“I’m not as interested in impeachment as setting up guardrails,” Hamilton said. Still, Hamilton said he understands that 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 casts doubt on working with Stephen Miller
Jeffries, who is on the cusp of becoming the nation’s first Black House speaker, was asked on election night about the prospects of working with Trump. He said he would be ready to work with the other side of the aisle “whenever and wherever possible to deliver real results.”
Jeffries on Sunday criticized Trump’s choice of longtime adviser Stephen Miller to succeed Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, calling him an “awful choice” and cast 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,” he said.
WATCH: What Trump picking Stephen Miller for chief of staff signals about his agenda
Democrats across the ideological spectrum have been critical of the appointment of Miller, an architect of Trump’s mass deportation machine 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.
Jeffries also said he supports a pending resolution from Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Jeffries said Democrats would be discussing it when they return to the Capitol this week. “Hegseth has got to go,” he said.
“I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” Jeffries said.
Hegseth in a video dismissed the impeachment push as “all about the politics of personal destruction.” He said it “won’t work with me.”
New senators express skepticism about Schumer
At least two new incoming Democratic senators expressed some reservations Sunday about Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who’s expected to be reelected to his post after leading his party back to the majority.
Hamilton said he’s told Schumer, who is currently running unopposed, that he means no disrespect but that the New Yorker is a polarizing figure in Kansas and 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.”
WATCH: Brooks and Capehart on Trump’s White House shakeup and fallout from the midterms
Hamilton said he wants to get to know the other Democratic senators better before he makes 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, but acknowledged that the Maryland Democrat does 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 also 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 this report.
