Investigations likely with switch in House

Aggressive oversight would be political risk, GOP Senate leader says

WASHINGTON — Democrats seized control of the House, while Republicans held the Senate on Tuesday in midterm elections that drew record numbers of voters to the polls and opened the door to tougher oversight of the White House over the next two years.

The elections fell short of delivering the sweeping repudiation of Trump wished for by Democrats and the “resistance” movement. But Democrats’ takeover in the House portends serious changes in Washington, as the party prepared to block Trump’s agenda and investigate his personal finances and potential ties to Russia.

House Democrats are prepared to launch investigations of Trump, and to closely scrutinize his policies on immigration, education and health care. But they are wary of immediately pursuing impeachment, concerned that it would undermine lawmakers who represent districts that Trump won in 2016.

Trump said investigations launched by the House would jeopardize prospects for bipartisan deals on issues such as trade, infrastructure and prescription drug costs.

“They can play that game, but we can play it better, because we have … a thing called the United States Senate,” Trump said, referring to GOP control of the upper chamber. “… I think I’m better at that game than they are, actually, but we’ll find out.”

In a new talking point, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cautioned Democrats against engaging in “presidential harassment” in the form of overly aggressive oversight.

“The Democrats in the House will have to decide just how much presidential harassment is good strategy. I’m not sure it will work for them,” he told reporters Wednesday.

At her own news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., credited the Democratic victory in the House to the party’s focus on health care issues. She said Democrats have a “responsibility for oversight,” but said committees’ efforts would not be “scattershot.”

“We’ll know what we are doing and we’ll do it right,” she said.

Jockeying for House leadership positions began in earnest Wednesday, though lawmakers are not due back in Washington until next week. Pelosi is widely considered the frontrunner to retake the speaker’s gavel, though dozens of Democratic candidates had called for new leadership during the campaign.

Trump himself threw support behind Pelosi’s bid, tweeting Wednesday that she “has earned this great honor!” and that the GOP will “perhaps” lend her some votes if Democrats “give her a hard time.”

On the Republican side, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio said in an interview with Hill.TV that he would challenge Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California for the role of minority leader. The move underscored conservatives’ desire to expand their power within the GOP conference after a bruising election.

House GOP leadership elections are scheduled for Nov. 14.

On Tuesday, Republicans won hotly contested Senate races in Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, with Trump’s racially charged warnings about undocumented immigrants and demonization of Democrats appearing to help withstand the “blue wave” the GOP once feared.

But Democrats — propelled by a rejection of Trumpism in the nation’s suburbs, and from women and minority voters especially — notched up victories in areas that just two years ago helped send Trump to the White House