Politics

Dems Take Control Of The House, May Investigate President

Democrats are now in charge in the House. They'll take control of investigations into the president and may open more.

Dems Take Control Of The House, May Investigate President
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President Trump may be billing the midterm elections as a win, but he's got some serious problems brewing over in the House of Representatives, which is now chock full of Democrats eager to investigate his administration. Here are three House committees that Trump should be paying attention to.

Most notably, the Judiciary Committee is slated to end up under Congressman Jerry Nadler. He tweeted late Tuesday night that "[Trump] and his administration will be held accountable to our laws and to the American people." The Judiciary Committee has the power to draw articles of impeachment against this president. He also said he'd investigate allegations of perjury and sexual assault against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Trump should also pay attention to the oversight committee. It will be run now by the current ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings. He's already said he's going to focus on two issues specifically: voting rights, and whether Trump violated the emoluments clause. Under the Constitution, federal officials cannot receive gifts from foreign governments without approval from Congress. Cummings wants to see if Trump's following that clause by subpoenaing his tax returns.

Cummings told reporters Wednesday morning: "I plan to shine a light on waste, fraud, and abuse in the Trump administration. I want to probe senior administration officials across the government who have abused their positions of power and wasted taxpayer money."

Adam Schiff will likely become the chairman of the House intelligence committee. The longtime critic of the president will now lead the House investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. Schiff had been at odds with his Republican counterpart, Chairman Devin Nunes, who's worked to defend the president and defuse the investigation.

Both Trump and current Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have called for bipartisanship in the wake of the elections. But Democrats who've been staunchly in the "resist Trump" camp since the 2016 election might not have much appetite for compromise.