By some measures, the Trump administration is the most corrupt in American history, and, as exit polls from NBC News, CNN, and the Associated Press show, corruption heavily influenced Americans' votes on Tuesday.
asserted
corruption → show → Tuesday
Now, Democrats are looking to capitalize on voters' resounding repudiation of the Trump administration's graft.
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Democrats → look → graft
Come January, the party plans to scrutinize the White House's deal making and the alleged conflicts of interest involving the president, his family, cabinet, and supporters.
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party → Come → president
"LAWYER UP" was the message from Rep. Robert Garcia (D–Calif.), who is poised to become the chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
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who → lawyer → Committee
It took just one word, "Subpoenas," for Sen. Ron Wyden (D–Ore.), the likely chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to make his point.
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Wyden → take → point
Yet messaging from ranking Democrats makes it clear their inquiries won't be limited to government actions; they will also extend to the actions of private companies and industries they perceive as allies of the president.
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they → make → president
In a statement released on Wednesday, Wyden promised to go after banks, insurance companies, and the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies for their "role in hurting the American people and enabling Trump's corruption."
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Wyden → release → corruption
Many of his colleagues echoed the sentiment, including Sen. Ed Markey (D–Mass.), who joked that there'd be a need to "plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we'll be printing" for Big Tech executives.
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we → echo → executives
Anticipating a Democratically controlled Congress, executives with even a tangential connection to the Trump administration have been taking steps to protect themselves from potential acts of lawfare.
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executives → anticipate → lawfare
In October, Bloomberg reported that "companies with ties to President Donald Trump and his family" had begun hiring "lawyers and lobbyists" in preparation for the "possibility of congressional inquiries."
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companies → report → inquiries
Semafor first reported the Democrats' plans to use corporate America as a back door to investigating the Trump administration in June.
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Semafor → report → June
"After going through bruising investigative fights over testimony and documents during Trump's first term, which often resisted Hill oversight, Democrats increasingly see the private sector as a riper oversight subject because of businesses' legal obligations to respond to subpoenas," Semafor's Nicholas Wu reported at the time.
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Wu → go → time
At a shadow hearing held by congressional Democrats in July, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.), the ranking member on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said that his party would "investigate government contractors and businesses that have donated to the ballroom and other projects," according to Bloomberg Government.
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that → hold → Government
Taking things a step further, the outlet reported that Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D–N.M.) named "Amazon, Apple, Coinbase, Google, HP, Lockheed, Palantir" as complicit in the "demolition of the White House," meaning it's likely that the companies' executives will be compelled to appear before Congress.
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executives → take → Congress
This includes people like Elon Musk, a prominent ally of Trump and the Republican Party in recent years.
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This → include → years
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that shares of Musk's companies SpaceX and Tesla "fell sharply" on expectations that he and his business dealings will face intense scrutiny from a Democrat-led Congress.
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he → report → Congress
Democrats can disagree with the president's decision to renovate the White House, and how he's gone about it, without painting every company that made a political contribution to the Trump administration as corrupt.
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that → disagree → administration
Donating to a political cause hardly makes a company or executive corrupt.
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company → donate → cause
In fact, the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris inaugural committee accepted donations from many of these same companies, including Google, Amazon, and Lockheed Martin, which received billions of dollars in government contracts during the Biden administration.
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which → accept → administration
Democrats—through the failed and deeply unpopular investigations and impeachment trials of the first Trump administration—failed to hold the president accountable the last time they were in power, which could explain their new approach.
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which → fail → approach
However, going after companies simply because of their proximity to an elected official is the wrong approach, especially since there are ample reasons—including the administration's taking of equity stakes in private companies and the numerous alleged conflicts of interest involving the president and those in his inner circle—to investigate Trump directly.
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going → go → Trump
Investigating the Trump administration's blatant corruption is laudable.
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Investigating → investigate → corruption
However, using allegations of corruption as an impetus to pursue corporations is an abuse of power and the type of weaponization Americans just voted against.
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Americans → use → weaponization
The Aporia
