Trump, Dems face life under divided Congress
President says he’s ready to work with the other party
WASHINGTON — Suddenly facing life under divided government, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders talked bipartisanship Wednesday but then bluntly previewed the fault lines to come. Trump threatened to go after House Democrats who try to investigate him, while Rep. Nancy Pelosi said her party would be “a check and balance” against the White House.
The day after midterm elections reset Washington, Trump took a victory lap at a raucous news conference that stretched to nearly 90 minutes, celebrating Republican Senate wins but distancing himself from the GOP’s loss of the House.
“I thought it was very close to complete victory,” Trump said, adding that he would “almost have to think about” whether he would have preferred Republicans to retain a slim majority in the House instead of their outright loss. Candidates who embraced his message “excelled,” and those who didn’t faltered, the president added, ticking off a selective list of defeated Republicans to support his point.
The president said he was interested in working with House Democrats but was ready to respond if he felt he was being ill-treated.
As long as Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress, Democrats have been hampered in pursuing any significant probes of Trump and his administration, and he made
it clear he expects the Senate to follow that course.
“They can play that game,” he said of possible House Democratic investigations, “but we can play it better, because we have a thing called the United States Senate.”
On Capitol Hill, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats must decide how much “harassment” they want to pursue against Trump, while suggesting there could be limited opportunities to work across the aisle.
Pelosi, who is expected to run for a second stint as speaker when Democrats take the House majority in January, said the party has “a responsibility to seek common ground where we can.”
But she added, “Where we cannot, we must stand our ground.”
By turns combative and conciliatory, Trump said Democrats and Republicans should set aside partisanship to work together. On legislative prospects, Trump said he could work with Democrats on issues such as taxes, infrastructure and health care, saying it “really could be a beautiful, bipartisan type of situation.”
Some House Democrats have threatened to use the subpoena power they will gain to investigate Trump and administration actions.
But, he warned, he will respond in kind and government will suffer.
Plus, he said, Democrats have “nothing, zero,” on him.
Shortly thereafter, however, it was announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had been forced out. His departure followed 18 months of criticism and insults from Trump, who had appointed him but objected to Sessions’ stepping aside from the Russia probe rather than guiding it.
Democrats are expected to investigate Trump’s business dealings, his Cabinet’s conduct and his campaign’s possible ties to Russia, among other issues.
Pelosi spoke with Trump and McConnell after the Democrats’ victory. McConnell said Wednesday that the two had discussed how they might “find a way forward” in a divided Congress.
As for congressional action the rest of this year, he said he could not imagine taking up immigration and acknowledged that the Democratic House and Republican Senate were likely to go their separate ways when it comes to the legislative agenda
“The one issue that Leader Pelosi and I discussed this morning where there could be a possible bipartisan agreement would be something on infrastructure, but there could be a lot of other things,” McConnell said.
Trump was quick to distance himself from losing GOP House members who had been critical of his heated rhetoric, citing Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo and Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, among others.
“Too bad, Mike,” Trump said of Coffman, before turning on Utah’s Mia Love, whose race remained too close to call.
“Mia Love gave me no love and she lost,” Trump said.
Trump’s claim that those who backed him were successful was not without exceptions. Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada was defeated although he had embraced Trump.
The president’s rebuke was felt on Capitol Hill. Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican from Pennsylvania who announced his retirement earlier this year, tweeted his displeasure: “To deal w harassment & filth spewed at GOP MOC’s in tough seats every day for 2 yrs, bc of POTUS; to bite ur lip more times you’d care to; to disagree & separate from POTUS on principle & civility in ur campaign; to lose bc of POTUS & have him piss on u. Angers me to my core.”
The White House news conference was also punctuated by Trump’s escalating attacks on the media. The president repeatedly flashed his temper as he insulted several reporters by name, interrupted their questions, ordered some to sit down and deemed one inquiry about his embrace of the description “nationalist” to be “racist.”
Trump also blamed the media for sowing division in the country and insisted they were to blame for the scene unfolding in the East Room.
“I come in here as a nice person wanting to answer questions and I have people jumping out of their seats shouting questions at me,” he said.