‘An endless amount of corruption.’ In a Democratic House, Trump would face a reckoning
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- Rep. Robert Garcia is poised to lead the investigative Oversight Committee if Democrats prevail in November.
- The Long Beach Democrat has a long list of Trump family members, profiteers and factotums to hold to account.
Where, Robert Garcia must consider, does one begin?
Garcia is a two-term Democratic congressman from Long Beach. He’s the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, which makes him the top Democrat on the panel charged with patrolling and policing operations of the federal government — a role congressional Republicans have conspicuously abdicated. If, as seems likely, his party wins control of the House in November, Garcia is poised to take over as chairman.
After two years of reckless abandon, the most obvious target for some badly needed congressional oversight is the crooked occupant of the White House. Like a shoreline strewn with seashells or a meadow bursting with mushrooms, President Trump’s brazen corruption and naked self-dealing offer a field that is ripe for the plucking.
So, given the gavel, where to start?
“First we have to ensure that people understand that this president and the administration, what they’re doing, is unprecedented and the most corrupt administration we’ve ever seen,” Garcia said.
To wit: In just his first year back in the Oval Office, Trump reported earning at least $2.2 billion, which is 5,500 times the president’s $400,000 annual salary. (No wonder he gives away his paycheck.) But it’s not just Trump who’s raking it in hand over fist.
“You have Jared Kushner getting billions from the Saudis and other foreign governments,” Garcia said. “You have [Trump’s sons] doing real estate deals across the country, being on boards that are getting contracts from the federal government. You have the selling of pardons. I mean, the list goes on.... It is just like an endless amount of corruption.”
Before he digs in, however, Garcia has to win reelection in November.
A vote, then a reckoning?
His reconfigured congressional district, which straddles Los Angeles and Orange counties, is somewhat less friendly than it used to be. As part of a redrawing under Proposition 50, the 2025 measure California voters passed to boost Democratic membership in the House, the lines were extended south, to take in the Trump-friendly territory of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. (The remap gave away a chunk of Garcia’s Democratic voters to bolster other districts.)
Still, the odds are strongly in his favor — especially in a midterm election serving as a referendum on the deeply unpopular incumbent.
Though his district leans left even after modification, Garcia said his pursuit of Trump isn’t some ideological bender. The president’s malfeasance is something constituents raise often, he said. “It’s corruption and it is affordability,” Garcia said this week from his district office in Long Beach. “Those are the two issues I hear constantly about. It’s just nonstop.”
Apart from Trump and his family, Garcia has a long list of administration officials he’d like to hold to account, and an even longer list of questions he’d like answered.
Why, for instance, are “JD Vance and Susie Wiles and Kash Patel having secret meetings in the Situation Room about the Epstein files?” Garcia asked, name-checking, respectively, the vice president, White House chief of staff and FBI director. “Why is [White House Deputy Chief of Staff] Stephen Miller out there essentially creating this huge ... loss-of-due-process crisis in this country as it relates to what he’s doing with” Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security?
Also, Garcia said, he wonders what businesses have gotten in return for their generous giving to this most avaricious of administrations.
“If you are cutting secret deals with the Trumps, if you are helping to set up these these crypto schemes, if you are paying for this ballroom that no one knows about and you are gaining some sort of favor from the presidency,” he said, “we need to understand exactly what’s going on.”
For Democrats, impeachment remains an option, but they are reluctant to make it a centerpiece of their agenda this time.
Of course, any attempt to investigate and prosecute wrongdoing is sure to run into stonewalling from an obstructionist White House. The “Justice” Department, which has been thoroughly tainted and co-opted by Trump, won’t be any help either.
For that reason, Garcia said, “not only does there have to be efforts made by the Congress and the House ... we also have to partner with our state partners and attorneys general and governors and outside organizations.... I think the state court process is going to also be really important for us.”
Impeachment in abeyance
Impeachment, which has a visceral appeal to certain of those deeply aggrieved by this lawless president, is not a first resort, Garcia said. Nor, he suggested, is it necessarily the second or third resort.
“Trump commits an impeachable offense every week,” Garcia said, exaggerating somewhat. But, as he noted, Trump was impeached twice in his first term and still won reelection in 2024. (Throw in a conviction on 34 felony counts and you can see the futility of trying to shame Trump into submission.)
“I don’t think you ever take anything off the table, and that includes impeachment,” Garcia said. “But that’s not our focus on Day One.... It’s time for [Democrats] to work on actually passing a forward-looking agenda and making sure that we are taking on this family and these dealings that are clearly the most threatening we’ve ever seen. To me, that has to be the immediate priority in front of us.”
Garcia and fellow Democrats are mindful of what’s driving unhappy voters who face a vexing mix of inflation and weak economic growth. Affordability is, for good reason, the central issue this election season.
But accountability matters, too. Indeed, in Trump’s debauched Washington, it’s long overdue.
That’s something else voters should consider in November.
What else you should be reading
The must-read: Supreme Court for now allows Trump to plan new mail ballot rules. California to sue again
The deep dive: Will Trump interfere in the midterms? Democrats and their allies are preparing
The L.A. Times Special: Two good ideas from Republicans dead on arrival in Democratic Legislature
Until next time,
mzb
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Ideas expressed in the piece
- The article argues that Democrats, with Robert Garcia poised to lead the House Oversight Committee, view Trump’s current administration as unprecedentedly corrupt, pointing to Trump’s vast personal earnings, foreign-linked business deals, and family financial arrangements as evidence of brazen self-enrichment.[1][2][3][8]
- The piece contends that under Republican control, Congress has largely abandoned meaningful scrutiny of the executive branch, and it suggests Democrats are preparing an expansive oversight campaign targeting Trump, his family, and senior officials rather than immediately pursuing another impeachment.[1][2][5][7]
- The article highlights planned investigations into alleged pay‑to‑play schemes, including Trump’s acceptance of a Qatari jet for use as a new Air Force One, federally connected contracts and business deals involving Trump’s children, and the family’s lucrative cryptocurrency investments, all framed as potential examples of corruption and undue foreign influence.[1][2][3][8]
- The piece suggests Democrats want to probe Trump‑linked entities, such as family‑controlled investment vehicles and sovereign wealth fund money tied to Trump businesses, to determine whether corporate donors and foreign governments secured favorable treatment through secretive financial arrangements.[2][3][4][5]
- The article argues that federal law‑enforcement channels and the Justice Department are compromised by Trump’s influence, and it therefore stresses that Democrats plan to rely heavily on subpoenas, public hearings, civil litigation, and cooperation with state attorneys general and outside organizations to build a record of alleged misconduct.[2][6]
- The piece maintains that while impeachment remains on the table, Democratic strategists see it as a last resort and instead prioritize documenting corruption and advancing a policy agenda focused on affordability and other economic pressures, asserting that voters care deeply about both pocketbook issues and ethical accountability.[1][2][5][7]
Different views on the topic
- Many Republicans and Trump supporters characterize investigations into Trump and his associates as politically motivated “witch hunts,” with survey data showing GOP voters overwhelmingly view FBI and Justice Department probes into Trump as illegitimate and as efforts to frame the former president rather than pursue fair accountability.[9]
- The Newsweek report notes that Republican Representative James Comer, a leading figure on House oversight, dismissed Democratic findings that Trump businesses received millions in foreign payments, reflecting a broader Republican belief that such reports overstate or misinterpret Trump’s conduct and serve partisan aims.[3]
- Polling summarized in the YouGov analysis indicates that even when Republicans acknowledge that individuals like Paul Manafort may be guilty of specific charges, many still describe the overall investigation into Trump as a witch hunt, underscoring a persistent view that law‑enforcement scrutiny of Trump is fundamentally biased and unjust.[9]
