Dems move ahead with probe
President should not bring threats to House, Pelosi says
Democrats charged ahead with plans to probe President Trump’s tax returns, business and ties to Russia.
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Donald Trump’s insistence that lawmakers abandon their investigations was a “threat” that had no place in Congress, as unbowed Democrats charged ahead Wednesday with plans to probe Trump’s tax returns, business and ties to Russia.
The chairman of the intelligence committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, announced a new investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s foreign financial interests.
“The president should not bring threats to the floor of the House,” Pelosi told reporters, rebuking Trump for saying during his State of the Union address that the “ridiculous partisan investigations” must end because they could harm the economy.
Pelosi said Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of the executive branch, under the Constitution’s system of checks and balances, and would be “delinquent” if it failed to do so.
Schiff indicated his committee’s investigation will be sweeping. It will include “the scope and scale” of Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, the “extent of any links and/or coordination” between Russians and Trump’s associates, whether foreign actors have sought to hold leverage over Trump or his family and associates, and whether anyone has sought to obstruct any of the relevant investigations.
“We’re going to do our jobs, and the president needs to do his,” Schiff said. “Our job involves making sure that the policy of the United States is being driven by the national interest, not by any financial entanglement, financial leverage or other form of compromise.”
The California Democrat also announced a delay in an upcoming closed-door interview with Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, “in the interests of the investigation.” The interview was originally scheduled for Friday. It will now be held on Feb. 28, Schiff said.
Schiff said he could not speak about the reason for the delay.
Hours after the meeting was pushed back, a document was filed, and then deleted, under seal in the criminal case against Cohen brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. The court’s docket did not contain any details about the nature of the document.
A later notice said the document had been “incorrectly filed in this case.”
Trump shot back, calling Schiff nothing but a “political hack” who has “no basis to do that.”
“It’s called presidential harassment,” Trump said during an event at the White House as he announced his new pick to head the World Bank.
After eight years in the minority, House Democrats are releasing their bottledup legislative energy. Their agenda goes beyond oversight of Trump’s administration and Russian election interference to the bread-and-butter issues of jobs, health care and the economy that propelled them to the House majority.
The intelligence committee voted Wednesday to send Mueller the transcripts from the panel’s earlier Russia investigation. Republicans ended that probe in March, concluding there was no evidence of conspiracy or collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. Democrats strongly objected at the time, saying the move was premature.
Also Wednesday, one House committee held its first hearing on gun violence in years. Two others gaveled in to address climate change. Three more were debating protecting people with pre-existing medical conditions and the Affordable Care Act.
The Foreign Affairs Committee was to debate the war in Yemen, and consider a war powers resolution to halt U.S. involvement.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, said Trump has to understand “that he has to be accountable. And the way we do that is through investigations.”
“It’s not about partisan investigations,” said Cummings. “We all have to be accountable. And it’s a new day.”
The new Congress was off to a rough start as the 35-day government shutdown jammed the agenda and stifled the energetic freshmen class that swept Democrats to power in the midterm election.
With the longest government closure over, for now, the new majority is eager to deliver on its promises before the next election shifts attention yet again.
James Curry, an associate professor of political science at the University of Utah, said Democrats have a short window to capture the public’s attention.
“They want to show voters they can legislate, they can run the government, they can do the things they said they’re going to do,” he said. “Reality,” Curry added, “is obviously more complicated than that.”
Much of the House’s legislation will fall flat in the Senate, where Republicans retain control, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to ensure his chamber serves as a backstop to prevent Democratic bills from landing on Trump’s desk.
The more likely result is that the legislative agenda sets the stage for the next election, in 2020, when voters will be assessing not only the performance of the new House majority but also which party they prefer in the White House.