WASHINGTON | Now facing life under a divided government, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders talked bipartisanship Wednesday but then bluntly previewed the fault lines that lay ahead. Trump threatened to target House Democrats who try to investigate him, while Rep. Nancy Pelosi said her party would be “a check and balance” against the White House.
One day after midterm elections, Trump took a victory lap at a raucous news conference, celebrating Republican Senate wins but distancing himself from the GOP losing control of the House. He said he was interested in working with House Democrats but that he was also ready to respond if he felt he was being ill-treated.
Democrats have been hampered in pursuing any significant probes of Trump and his administration, and he made it clear he expects the Senate to follow that course.
“They can play that game,” he said of possible House Democratic investigations, “but we can play it better, because we have a thing called the United States Senate.”
On Capitol Hill, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said Democrats must decide how much “harassment” they want to pursue against Trump, while claiming there could be limited opportunities to work across the aisle. And Pelosi, who is expected to run for a second stint as speaker when Democrats take the House majority in January, said the party has “a responsibility to seek common ground where we can.” But she added, “Where we cannot, we must stand our ground.”
Pelosi, during a news conference that was delayed because of Trump’s lengthy remarks, said she had worked productively with President George W. Bush when she was speaker a decade ago on taxes and other issues, and she welcomed the chance to do so again with Trump.
“We’d like to work together so our legislation will be bipartisan,” she said.
