Talk of cooperation, for now
But US leader ousts Sessions, vows to fight Democrats if they launch probes
US President Donald Trump said he is willing to work across the aisle with Democrats in the House of Representatives, but vowed to fight if they push back, after the party regained the lower chamber of Congress in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
In a news conference at the White House a day after congressional elections created a divided Congress in which Republicans expanded their numbers in the Senate but lost control of the House, Trump stressed unity while a longtime Democratic lead- er highlighted oversight power on the same day.
“I would love to see unity, peace, love and any other word you want to use,” Trump said. “Obviously, I think that we had to wait until the midterms were over. Now they are over. It really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation.”
Areas where the two parties could work together include economy, healthcare, trade, infrastructure and lowering the cost of prescription drugs, Trump said.
The president said Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, had expressed to him a desire to work together.
A divided-power arrangement in Congress with a GOP-led Senate means Democrats would be limited in what they can do.
But analysts have predicted an increase in investigations by subpoena-powered Democratic committee leaders, as the new majority’s greatest influence will be oversight. For example, Democrats will now head House committees that can probe the president’s tax returns, which he has refused to turn over since he was a candidate.
Trump lashed out at any such subpoena attempts by Democrats, who may be emboldened by their takeover of the House. “If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!” Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
For her part, Pelosi said: “Democrats come to this majority with the responsibility not to Democrats — it’s not to Democrats or Republicans — it’s to the United States of America. The fact is we’d like to work together.”
But she said Democrats won’t be a “rubber stamp” for the president and have a responsibility for oversight.
Trump on Wednesday fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a day after the midterm vote, naming a loyalist to replace him.
Sessions, a 71-year-old former US senator from Alabama, was an early and loyal supporter of Trump but drew his fury when he recused himself from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 White House campaign, a claim strongly denied by both Moscow and the White House.
His departure was the first in what could be a string of high-profile exits as Trump reshapes his team to gird for his own 2020 re-election effort. The Republican president named Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, as acting attorney general and said he would nominate someone for the job soon.