The midterms are past and as the fog clears one thing is certain – though the Democrats gained only a slim margin in the House, they will use their newfound power for all its worth to make President Trump’s next two years hell.
Despite prognostication for a referendum against Trump the ‘blue wave’ was a trickle.
Some left-wing pundits put their best spin on things, ignoring the fact the Senate is redder than ever. Tuesday night was not the humiliation for the Republicans or Trump some want it to appear.
At the same time, conservatives like Sean Hannity of Fox News are trying to sell their listeners a dream by saying things like, “The Democrats winning the House is meaningless.”
As Sam Clench of AustralianNews.com said, “That is, to put it mildly, wishful thinking. Donald Trump’s life just got much, much harder in the wake of the midterm elections.”
If you haven’t noticed, not much has been heard about the Russia investigation for the last couple of months, but that is bound to change soon. Sorry Hannity, but what happened Tuesday was far from meaningless when it comes to Trump’s agenda and his ability to successfully lead this country further into its recovery.
As much as I hate to give him credit, Jake Tapper of CNN was right when he said, [the Democrats] “are going to make his life a living hell. He is going to find an opposition he has never encountered before.” What Tapper failed to say is that he and the rest of the mainstream media will be the left’s primary cheerleader in whatever lies ahead.
So, what can the President expect from here on out?
Foremost, the House will no longer be run by solid conservatives like Devin Nunes but by Nancy Pelosi or whichever Democrat is made Speaker of the House.
During her victory speech the day after the election, Pelosi said, “We’ve all had enough of division.” A little hard to take comfort from when Pelosi and the rest of her party have done nothing but obstruct and divide since before Trump took the oath.
Though many progressives are salivating at the mouth as they realize they now have the real power to push for impeachment, many leading Democrats downplay that idea. Trump and the Senate still control two-thirds of the power of the federal government and impeachment hearings will do nothing but hinder both parties.
What Tuesday night’s results mean is that Democrats do not have enough power to use the subpoena power of Congress to as one Democrat said: “investigate Trump and his administration top to bottom.”
Democrats have already compiled a list over 50 subpoena requests that were denied by the Republican majority they plan to act on in January. Without the likes of Constitutionally minded lawmakers like Trey Gowdy and Nunes in charge, Trump is looking at months of renewed investigations into everything from Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, Jared Kushner’s email, the administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, and Trump’s attempts to destabilize the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who is likely to become the House Judiciary Committee chair, is already promising an investigation into whether Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh perjured himself during testimony to the Senate. Good luck with that one since the F.B.I. has already presented evidence that whatever perjury occurred was with the judge’s accusers not him.
The Democratic House will investigate Trump and his associates with abandon. They will subpoena executive agencies, officials for testimony, evidence, and documents. It is possible they may even try to force the President to hand over his tax returns.
Congressman Adam Schiff will now chair the House Intelligence Committee and he will certainly use his power to bring back the Russia investigation. After chairman Nunes shut down the investigation earlier this year Schiff said: “On a whole host of investigative threads, our work is fundamentally incomplete, some issues partially investigated, others, like that involving credible allegations of Russian money laundering, remain untouched.”
As the results rolled in the other night, MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace said: “I don’t know if (Trump) understands how much his life changed tonight.”
Perhaps not, but Wallace doesn’t understand yet how much things have changed since Trump came into town. He’s not one for taking it on the chin and he’s not one for playing defense.
