Top Democrats are ramping up oversight of the Trump administration and businesses it has partnered with, while Attorney General Todd Blanche warned he could counterinvestigate lawmakers conducting probes.
Democrats romped to majorities in both the House and the Senate during Tuesday’s midterm elections, putting them in position to seize control of committee gavels and subpoena power in January. The electoral rout leaves Democrats with at least 54 Senate seats and 254 seats in the House of Representatives as votes continue to be counted in several states.
Democrats vowed to investigate both President Donald Trump‘s White House and businesses that have worked with the administration. CNBC reported on Thursday that Democrats are expected to take an aggressive approach to probing businesses, especially those companies with ties to the Trump family. The technology, cryptocurrency and prediction market industries, among others, could immediately be in the crosshairs.
“If you’ve been making your profits by cheating American families and scamming your investors, you better get ready for some investigations — serious ones,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the incoming chair of the Senate Banking Committee, on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “The American people are just damn sick of this.”
Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney, whom the Senate narrowly confirmed as the nation’s top cop earlier this year, took umbrage at the Democrats’ plans for investigations and said he may launch his own investigations against members of Congress.
“There could be,” Blanche said Sunday when pressed on CNN’s “State of the Union” about whether the administration will counterinvestigate Democrats.
“When the threats become so vile and so dangerous that you are telling people in college that they better be careful if they want to work in the Trump administration because somebody will come after them, at some point you have to draw the line.”
Blanche was referring to comments made by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who said during a University of Chicago event that she wants “young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’…I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want. And so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message sent.”
Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate Democrats over the comments.
Blanche also took aim at Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the likely incoming chair of the House Oversight Committee — appearing to caution lawmakers who sit on the panel. Garcia warned the administration and business leaders to “lawyer up” after the election.
“I would be very worried if I was a member on that committee,” Blanche said.
Garcia shot back, saying on CNN: “What Todd Blanche is doing right now is a threat.”
“He’s trying to stop us from doing real oversight,” Garcia said. “He is the person that should be reading the Constitution, because the Constitution makes it very clear that it’s our job in Congress to conduct oversight of the executive and the administration.”