EDITORIAL: Will affordability take a back seat to retribution?

Democratic rhetoric over the past week foreshadows that voters who were hoping the new congressional majority would focus on middle-class economic concerns may be disappointed. Instead, the message has been tied to a rock and thrown through a White House window: “Lawyer up!”

“The Democratic Party has a long list of investigative targets,” NPR reported this week. Among the potential subjects: Jeffrey Epstein, immigration enforcement, political “corruption,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Iran war, Elon Musk and DOGE, and various presidential initiatives.

House Democrats wasted little time moving forward with their revenge push during the lame-duck session. The Pete Hegseth impeachment issue hit the lower chamber less than a week after the election. And on Wednesday, Democrats introduced a bill to curtail what the see as President Donald Trump’s abuse of his pardon powers.

CBS News reports that the proposal would “direct the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate pardons that raise potential conflicts of interest.” It “would also make explicit that the president and vice president can be prosecuted for trading pardons for something of value, and require pardon recipients to disclose gifts to projects tied to the president.”

It is indeed the job of Congress to hold the executive branch accountable, and there are certainly decisions made within the current administration that merit additional scrutiny. Few would argue, after all, that Mr. Trump hasn’t pushed the limits of presidential power or shown a disdain for political convention. But an endless parade of hearings and vindictive probes risks turning off many voters who turned blue with the expectation that Democrats would prioritize their cost-of-living concerns.

As for the pardon proposal, controversies involving presidential clemency aren’t unique to the current occupant of the White House. (See: Joe Biden’s pardon of his son.) There may be a case for diluting or reforming that power, but the proper avenue for such change is a constitutional amendment, not a bill that is unlikely to survive judicial scrutiny. “What you can’t do is exactly what this bill tries to do,” Samuel Morrison, a former Justice Department adviser on pardons, told CBS, “which is regulate the exercise of the pardon power through legislation.”

No word on how this coming political theater addresses middle-class kitchen-table concerns. Yet it speaks volumes that, in the days after their sweeping electoral wins, Democrats have been relatively muted about their “affordability” agenda but increasingly outspoken regarding their pursuit of political retribution against the Trump administration.