Sanders Warns Democrats Against Letting Trump Investigations Crowd Out Affordability Agenda

On Sunday, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Sen. Bernie Sanders was asked a direct question by host Kristen Welker: could two years spent investigating President Donald Trump and his officials put at risk the mandate Democrats earned to make life more affordable? "Yes, I do," the Vermont senator answered.

The exchange came days after Democrats won the House and Senate in last week's midterm elections, with the new majorities set to take power in January. Sanders did not argue against oversight. He said Democrats should hold the Trump administration accountable for what he called corruption and illegal, unconstitutional actions. His warning was about proportion: the party, he said, "cannot spend all of our time investigating Trump."

He laid out what he thinks should share the agenda. America, he said, has the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country. Twenty percent of seniors, in his telling, are trying to live on $15,000 a year. And people are frightened, he said, that Elon Musk and other billionaires are pushing artificial intelligence on the public with consequences for the economy, privacy and health, and what he described as an existential threat to humanity. Democrats, he said, have to stand up for working-class families and make a real difference in their lives.

Affordability was the centerpiece of the Democratic campaign. Candidates blamed the Trump administration for rising costs of gas, groceries, housing and healthcare, and tied the increases partly to the U.S. military's war on Iran and to Trump's tariffs on countries around the world. The Iran war drove up fuel prices; AAA reported a national average of $4.02 per gallon as of Sunday, nearly $1 higher than a year earlier. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other allies have partly blamed the war for Republican losses.

Other Democrats have signaled a more aggressive posture toward investigations. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the incoming leader of the House Oversight Committee, said on Sunday that Democrats could examine Trump's pardons as well as allies of the president, including Musk and newly appointed White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Earlier in the week, Garcia said Oversight Democrats were "ready to take on the crooks, the con men, and the Trump crime family," and added: "Lawyer up."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, expected to be the next Speaker, said Democrats would bring accountability to those who have "visited unprecedented corruption on this country." Officials focused on enriching themselves, their families, friends or donors, he argued, are not focused on improving Americans' lives, and he said House Democrats would put the American people first.

Sanders read the election as more than a rebuke. In his view, voters expressed disgust with Trump and his policies, but also demanded real change rather than "tinkering around the edges." He described voters as working long hours, worried about their kids, unable to afford healthcare or housing, while the wealthiest Americans have never had it so good. The moment, he said, calls on Democrats to stand up to big money.

He was also blunt about Trump personally, calling him "mentally unbalanced" and "erratic," while adding that Trump is "not stupid" and is "a good politician." Sanders suggested that Trump, seeing millions working for starvation wages, might be open to raising the minimum wage to a living wage, and might want credit for guaranteeing healthcare to everyone, as other major countries do. Whether Democrats can work with him, Sanders said, is uncertain, and he guaranteed nothing, but he called it worth the effort.

The question for January is how the new majorities divide their time between subpoenas and a pocketbook agenda, and whether any cooperation with Trump on wages or healthcare ever materializes.