Democrats Vow To Rein In Trump Administration If They Win The House

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., in a May 2017 file photo. Cummings is in line to lead the powerful House Oversight Committee if Democrats take the House next month.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

It’s one of the highest of the high stakes in the midterm elections. Democrats promise to put the Trump administration under the microscope of oversight investigations if they win control of the House.

Aggressive oversight would mark an abrupt about-face for Congress, where Republican leaders for two years have avoided confronting President Trump. GOP-led committees have resisted investigating alleged wrongdoing by officials, as well as questions about Trump’s own possible conflicts of interest.

“What we’ve seen is not only a stretch of time when you have an executive branch that has been breaking norms, but you have a Congress who’s sat by without consequence and allowed that to happen without significant accountability,” said former congressional investigator Justin Rood. He’s now with the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, which trains Capitol Hill staffers in how to do oversight.