Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described “congressional oversight” as “presidential harassment” in a press conference on Wednesday, and said holding the president accountable might backfire for Democrats.
Asked by a reporter “is there anything the Senate Republicans could or would do to help President Trump in the event that Democrats in the House attempt to seize his tax returns,” McConnell smirked.
“The whole issue of presidential harassment is interesting,” McConnell replied. “I remember when we tried it in the late ’90s. We impeached President Clinton: his numbers went up and ours went down.” He used the term a second time, saying that Democrats “will have to decide how much presidential harassment they think is good strategy.”
“Are you recommending that for House Democrats, that oversight that they have said they’re going to do might back fire on them?” another reporter chimed in.
“They’re not interested in my recommendations,” laughed McConnell. “I’m just making a historical observation that the business of presidential harassment, which we were deeply engaged in in the late 90s improved the president’s approval rating and tanked ours.”
Executive oversight is constitutional duty of Congress, and a key component of the United States’ system of checks and balances.
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