Last updated on January 26th, 2019 at 01:10 pm
Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said Thursday that the days of Donald Trump using mob-style tactics to dodge accountability for his potential crimes are over.
With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, Swalwell said Trump may try to bully witnesses into silence, but he won’t get away with it.
In an interview with MSNBC‘s Ari Melber, the Democratic congressman said, “The days of mob rule are over. We are no longer powerless. We are able to stop this type of intimidation, this type of tampering, this type of obstruction and finally hold the president accountable.”
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Rep. @ericswalwell says Trump will be held accountable for bullying witnesses. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/pF0xW3qQL4
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) January 25, 2019
Rep. Swalwell said:
[Trump’s witness tampering is] a legitimate concern, but it would be more legitimate if the Democrats did not control the House of Representatives. The days of mob rule are over. We are no longer powerless. We are able to stop this type of intimidation, this type of tampering, this type of obstruction and finally hold the president accountable.
Democrats are doing the job Republicans failed to do
While Donald Trump‘s threats on Michael Cohen‘s family appeared to have worked in the short term – Cohen canceled his plans to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7 – Democrats are quickly pushing back.
On Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to force Cohen to testify. According to The New York Times, the purpose of the testimony is to “formally correct false testimony that he delivered last year about a proposed Trump Organization project in Moscow, one of his lawyers confirmed on Thursday.”
On the House side, Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings – chairman of the House Oversight Committee – said he is committed to having Cohen testify one way or another. Cummings even suggested that Cohen could be brought from prison to appear before Congress.
What all of this indicates is that, unlike Republicans, Democrats in Congress aren’t playing games. They are doing what the spineless GOP has failed to do for two years – hold Donald Trump accountable.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.