Democrats won control of both the House and Senate on Tuesday. California's two U.S. senators say the party should focus on affordability, not on impeaching President Donald Trump. ABC7 spoke with Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla at Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra's election-night party.
"I want to see Democrats focus on cost of living. So, our oversight should be focused on the corruption that is resulted in driving up prices for people," Schiff said. Padilla agreed but said accountability must be on the agenda: cabinet members and other officials "deserve to come before Congress under oath and be held accountable."
East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier told CBS San Francisco that the party now has to prove it can govern. "We have the power of the purse," he said, noting that reconciliation needs only a simple majority. CBS reported that he is in line to chair the House Ethics Committee.
Trump said Wednesday he would "probably" get along with Democrats "unless they want to be destructive," and pointed to his veto power. UC Santa Cruz professor Nolan Higdon told CBS that Democrats could pass popular bills that force Trump into unpopular vetoes. UC Berkeley law professor Bertrall Ross questioned whether the Justice Department would enforce congressional subpoenas against the administration.
Analysts warned against reading too much into the result. "The voters didn't necessarily embrace them and their message, as much as they simply rejected Trump and the Republicans," Dan Schnur, who teaches at UC Berkeley and USC, told ABC7.