Democrats who are about to take control of Congress used the Sunday television shows to put President Donald Trump's closest allies on notice: Elon Musk, incoming White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, and some of America's largest companies should expect congressional investigations when the new Congress is sworn in this January. The warnings, delivered five days after Democrats swept both chambers in the midterm elections, set up a two-year confrontation between a Democratic Congress and a Republican White House that has already promised to fight back.
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| File photo: Elon Musk. Democrats say they want to question him about his role in the Department of Government Efficiency and last year's firing of federal workers. |
The Sunday Show Warnings
Mr. Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and the lawmaker in line to chair it, was the most specific of the Democrats who appeared on Sunday. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, set to lead the Senate Banking Committee, warned companies on CBS that they should be ready for serious scrutiny.
Mr. Garcia said the investigations would focus on Mr. Musk's role in the Department of Government Efficiency, the office that oversaw the firing of federal workers last year, and on Mr. Miller's role in the immigration crackdown.
"I think there's a lot of interest, not just from our committee, but from committees across the Congress to speak to Mr. Musk," Mr. Garcia told CNN's "State of the Union."
Ms. Warren, speaking on CBS's "Face the Nation," aimed her warning at corporate America. She did not name any company, but her message was blunt.
"If you've been making your profits by cheating American families and scamming your investors, you'd better get ready for some investigations, serious ones," she said.
The two appearances came on the first Sunday after an election that gave Democrats control of both the House and the Senate, and oversight of the Trump administration has emerged as one of their first stated priorities.
Musk and the DOGE Firings
Mr. Musk is the most prominent name on the Democrats' list. The tech billionaire led the Department of Government Efficiency during the first year of Mr. Trump's second term, an office that drove the mass firing of federal workers and the dismantling of parts of the federal bureaucracy.
Democrats have long argued that the department's cuts were carried out without proper legal authority and with little regard for the workers and services affected. Mr. Garcia said the committee would examine Mr. Musk's role in those decisions and his companies' federal contracts. He did not say whether Mr. Musk would be subpoenaed, only that there was broad interest across committees in hearing from him.
The prospect of Mr. Musk testifying under oath has been discussed by Democrats for months, including questions about conflicts of interest between his government role and his companies' business with the federal government.
Mr. Musk has not publicly responded to Sunday's warnings. No finding of wrongdoing has been made against him, and the investigations Democrats are promising have not yet begun.
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| File photo: Stephen Miller, whom President Donald Trump named White House chief of staff on Friday. Representative Robert Garcia called him the architect of a "horrific, unjust" immigration policy. |
Miller at the Center
The second named target is Mr. Miller, whom Mr. Trump named White House chief of staff on Friday, replacing Susie Wiles. Mr. Garcia called Mr. Miller the architect of a "horrific, unjust" immigration policy and said his central role in the administration made him a natural subject for oversight.
"Stephen Miller is at the center of the major policy decisions that are happening in the administration, and so it does deserve oversight and investigation," Mr. Garcia told CNN.
Asked whether Mr. Miller had broken a law, Mr. Garcia named none. He said Mr. Miller had been at the center of actions that were unconstitutional, unjust and possibly illegal, and that the committee would find out.
Mr. Miller has been the driving force behind the administration's immigration enforcement, including the deportation operations that have defined Mr. Trump's second term. The crackdown has included operations in which two people were fatally shot in Minnesota by federal agents, and it has proven widely unpopular: a Reuters/Ipsos poll in October found that only 37 percent of Americans approved of Mr. Trump's handling of immigration, down from 50 percent when he took office.
With Mr. Miller now installed as chief of staff, officials and experts who spoke to Reuters said the administration was expected to continue its aggressive approach to immigration enforcement and give no ground to a Democratic-controlled Congress. Mr. Miller starts in the new job on Monday, the same day the House returns to Washington.
A Wider Net: Family, Pardons, Ballroom and Wars
Mr. Garcia said the oversight would not stop with Mr. Musk and Mr. Miller. He said members of the president's family, including Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, could "absolutely" be called to answer questions, and he named the president's pardons, the donors paying for the White House ballroom, the operation that removed Venezuela's leader and the Iran war as subjects for investigation.
Some of that work has already started. Senator Richard Blumenthal has written to ballroom donors and officials asking them to keep and hand over records, and Mr. Garcia announced his bid for the Oversight chairmanship in a letter to colleagues on Thursday.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who will become speaker of the House in January, also used the Sunday shows to say Democrats would back a Republican measure to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran war. "Pete Hegseth has got to go," Mr. Jeffries told ABC's "This Week." Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and critic of Mr. Trump, has said he will reintroduce articles of impeachment against Mr. Hegseth soon.
The breadth of the list reflects how Democrats intend to use their new majority. The party's leaders say they were elected to hold the administration accountable, but they also face pressure from voters who want Congress to focus on lowering prices.
The Administration Pushes Back
Attorney General Todd Blanche answered the Democrats on CNN minutes before Mr. Garcia appeared, and he made clear the administration would not cooperate quietly. He called the talk of investigations "outright threats" and said targeting administration officials and allies was "not something we can tolerate in this country."
"If that's what this new incoming leadership wants to do, we are ready," said Mr. Blanche, a former personal lawyer for Mr. Trump. "If you work in this administration, you have a lawyer. It's me."
Mr. Blanche also suggested that investigations could run in the other direction, saying there "could be" investigations into Democratic lawmakers who conduct oversight of the Trump administration. Mr. Garcia replied in the next segment that Mr. Blanche was trying to intimidate the committee.
"What Todd Blanche is doing right now is a threat. He is threatening our committee. He's trying to stop us from doing real oversight," Mr. Garcia said.
According to reports, Mr. Trump has also directed the Justice Department to look into Democrats' impeachment talk, a step the department has not confirmed it has taken.
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| Official portrait: Representative Robert Garcia of California, in line to chair the House Oversight Committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January. (U.S. House of Representatives) |
What This Means
The Sunday warnings matter because they show how Democrats plan to govern with a narrow but real majority. Investigations are one of the few tools a Congress can use without the president's signature, and they can force the administration to produce documents, send officials to testify and answer questions in public hearings. For a party that campaigned on accountability, they are also the most visible way to show voters that the midterm victory has consequences.
But the strategy carries risks. A Congress that spends its energy on subpoenas could find itself accused of the same partisanship it criticizes, and voters who elected Democrats on the promise of lower prices may grow impatient if hearings crowd out legislation.
For the administration, the threat is more immediate. Mr. Miller's move to chief of staff puts the architect of its most controversial policies at the center of the White House just as Democrats gain the power to investigate him, and Mr. Musk's companies hold billions of dollars in federal contracts.
What Happens Next
For now, everything Democrats promised on Sunday is still a plan. The new Congress is sworn in on January 3, and only then will Mr. Garcia and Ms. Warren hold the gavels that let them issue subpoenas and schedule hearings.
In the meantime, the two sides are positioning for a standoff. Democrats are sending preservation letters and announcing their targets. The administration is promising to resist and threatening counter-investigations. The coming weeks will show whether the oversight promises become a working program of hearings and subpoenas, or remain the opening shots of a longer war between a Democratic Congress and a president who has never accepted a check on his power.
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