Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee who is in line to become its chairman, said Thursday that members of the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Homeland Security officials, and corporate executives who worked with the administration should “lawyer up” now that Democrats control Congress.
Garcia made the comments during an appearance on MS NOW’s “The Last Word,” where host Lawrence O’Donnell asked him to explain the two-word warning he had issued on election night.
“If you are a member of the Trump crime family and you’re grifting off the American public, you should lawyer up,” Garcia said. “If you are involved in corruption and turning ICE and DHS into a deportation machine where only some are profiting and you’re treating people inhumanely, you should lawyer up. If you’re an American CEO or corporation that is ripping off the American people, you’re colluding with the Trumps, you’re causing harm, making people to choose between the gas and the groceries, you should lawyer up.”
Garcia said the public is focused on “both affordability and accountability,” and argued there “must be justice for the enormous harm” he said was done by the Trump administration, naming Corey Lewandowski and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem specifically, as well as corporations he accused of “taking advantage of people and stealing people’s data.”
He also said survivors of Jeffrey Epstein “deserve justice.”
“We are excited and putting together a robust oversight agenda that’s going to take a look at those four issues on day one,” Garcia said, listing the Trump administration, immigration enforcement agencies, corporate conduct, and the Epstein case as the panel’s initial priorities.
Garcia did not detail specific subpoenas, legal theories, or evidence during the interview. His comments signal the direction an incoming Democratic-led Oversight Committee intends to take once the new Congress is seated, with immigration enforcement practices, executive branch conduct, and corporate pricing practices named as early targets.
