House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) clarified on Wednesday that Democrats are not planning on arresting the members of President Donald Trump’s administration who do not comply with congressional subpoenas, disproving a claim that freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has been telling her constituents.
“We’ve made a judgment that we want the American people to understand that we are pursuing not arbitrary action, but considered and thoughtful action,” Hoyer told reporters, according to The Washington Examiner. And while he noted that imprisoning members of the White House “sounds appealing,” it is not an action that House Democrats will ultimately carry out.
“I don’t mean to say that inherent contempt is by definition arbitrary, [but] it may be perceived as arbitrary,” he continued, referring to the oldest of three strategies that Congress can use to enforce subpoenas.
Tlaib has boasted about the possibility that her caucus will jail the president’s allies in an escalating effort to force White House officials to comply. The move, referred to as inherent contempt, is a power that the legislature has not used since 1935. – READ MORE