Let the investigations begin
Josh Chafetz discusses impeachment, investigations, legislating and more.
The midterm elections are tomorrow, and it's looking like Democrats will take the House and possibly the Senate. There's already been quite a bit of debate surrounding what Democrats should do with the power they'll soon have, and one of the biggest questions right now is whether they should begin impeachment proceedings.
I decided I'd talk to an expert on congressional power about that and other important questions facing Democrats. Josh Chafetz is a professor of law and politics at Georgetown University, and he's a prominent expert on Congress. I spoke with him about how Democrats could use power back in March, but a lot has happened since then, so we had many new issues to discuss.
"No matter how well Democrats do, they’re not going to have the votes to remove someone through impeachment, whether we’re talking about Trump or a Cabinet secretary," Chafetz says. "The real calculus for Democrats is how they can use impeachment proceedings to communicate their case to the public in the best way... The case for impeachment is stronger if Democrats also control the Senate."
Chafetz says whether we're talking about impeaching Trump or members of his Cabinet, such as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche or HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a conviction and removal of that figure is unlikely. However, if Democrats control the Senate, they can at least guide the process in that chamber and make a stronger case for why this person is unfit for their job.
"If Republicans keep the Senate and Democrats have the House, then it’s really just House proceedings, which aren’t going to seem as grand," Chafetz says. "As soon as they send it over to the Senate, the Senate will just peremptorily get rid of it."
Chafetz says he doesn't agree with the idea that impeaching Trump or members of his Cabinet would help Republicans in 2028, as some have argued. Beyond impeachment, Chafetz says Democrats should definitely launch numerous investigations into the Trump administration, but they'll need to be smart about it.
"One of the smart things Democrats should do is think about how they can run investigations so they don’t seem like a thousand different scattershot investigations, but instead seem to be constructing a grand narrative," Chafetz says. "One obvious option for that narrative is corruption—a way to tie together a lot of things that might seem to belong in different policy boxes, under one label."
Democrats could pick a few overarching topics and place their investigations into the administration into those boxes. Maybe they're presented as the corruption, abuse of power and dereliction of duty investigations—or something like that.
"A big part of what they’ll be doing is uncovering facts, but a lot of it is also going to be building a story they can present to the public," Chafetz says. "That’s going to take some work and coordination, because these things might fall under the jurisdiction of different committees."
Thor Benson
Numerous prominent Democrats have suggested that Democrats need to focus on "getting things done" when they take power. By that, they mean that they should focus on passing bills to address affordability issues and things of that nature. Of course, Trump can veto any bill he doesn't like, so there's a lot they will not be able to get done. However, Chafetz says there might be some significant accomplishments within reach.
"There are probably some small-bore things, and maybe even some medium-bore things, that they can get done," Chafetz says. "Think about the fact that the largest housing reform bill in about three decades passed in July of this year, with veto-proof majorities in both houses... Permitting reform or something like that might be another one."
Chafetz says that there will be many things Democrats will not be able to get done, but they should spend the next two years "developing fleshed-out legislative proposals for the things they’ll want to pass as early as possible in 2029." Essentially, they should have a list of priorities and plans ready to go before the next election, and they can run on passing that legislation.
"To have bill text ready to go on day one of the 121st Congress, they really need to spend the 120th Congress holding hearings, developing those proposals, and actually getting the text fleshed out," Chafetz says.
Something Democrats should not be doing is confirming federal judges. Chafetz says he doesn't expect this Congress to be confirming many judges or Trump administration appointees if Democrats take the Senate.
"If Democrats take a Senate majority, I would expect to see very few confirmations. I’d expect basically no confirmations of Court of Appeals judges, much less Supreme Court nominees," Chafetz says.
We'll know what Congress is going to look like pretty soon, assuming Trump doesn't pull off some kind of unprecedented election disruption, and then Democrats can start laying out what they're going to do. Hopefully they're considering all of the things that were mentioned here.
