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DENVER — Congressional Democrats are heading into the next two years with a choice: focus on investigating President Donald Trump and his administration or look for ways to work with him to deliver results for Americans.
The party, after sweeping pickups in last week’s midterms, right away warned Trump and Republicans to “lawyer up” and in the following days began outlining investigations into the administration, including its handling of immigration enforcement, the president’s business interests and the Justice Department’s actions.
But newly elected Democrats and strategists at the “What’s Next” conference in Denver told Fox News Digital that their party should seek opportunities to work with Trump.
The new guard argues that voters who elected them into office want to see results over partisan fights.
Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand said Democrats should work with Trump because voters chose him, adding, “You don’t get to pick and choose who you work with. The people do.” (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
‘LAWYER UP’: DEMS IMMEDIATELY PUT TRUMP ON NOTICE AMID REPUBLICANS’ MIDTERM BLOODBATH
Hosted by Majority Democrats, the conference brought Democratic leaders, strategists and rising figures together to discuss the party’s direction after the midterms. Organizers billed it as an independent conversation about what Democrats should do next.
Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand cautioned his party against making investigations and impeachments the focus of its new political momentum, particularly when the underlying issues have already been reported.
Asked what he did not want Democrats to do as they take office, Sand said he did not want to see them “throwing bombs” at Republicans. Voters, he said, need public servants focused on improving their lives.
“There are people who are really struggling right now, whose lives have been ruined by high gas prices, by all kinds of policy choices, and they need results,” Sand told Fox News Digital. “They need public servants who are actually trying to serve the public.”
BERNIE SANDERS WARNS DEMOCRATS NOT TO SPEND ALL THEIR TIME INVESTIGATING TRUMP
Sand said he questioned the value of investigating matters already covered by the media instead of pursuing work that could help ordinary people. Asked if that meant working with the Trump administration, he said yes.
“He’s there, he was put there two years ago. He’s gonna be there another two years,” Sand said. “You don’t get to pick and choose who you work with. The people do.”
Sen.-elect James Talarico, D-Texas, urged Democrats to work with President Donald Trump, saying the country “cannot wait two years for change” and calling on his party to make Trump’s final two years in office “the most productive” of any presidency. (Lekan Oyekanmi/AP Photo)
Sen.-elect James Talarico, D-Texas, called on Democrats to focus on what they can accomplish now, even as they push for longer-term reforms.
“Some of these reforms may not pass until 2029, but the American people cannot wait two years for change,” Talarico said. “We must work with President Trump.”
He urged Democrats to make the Republican president’s final two years in office “the most productive of any presidency in American history.”
Talarico, who became the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a statewide election in Texas, also warned against getting “bogged down in the same petty fights.”
“The American people are demanding change, and in this election, they chose our party to deliver it,” Talarico said.
Democratic strategist Lis Smith offered a related caution, saying the election was “largely a referendum on Donald Trump and less a validation of Democrats and their policies.”
Smith, a senior advisor for Majority Democrats, said the party still needs to earn voters’ trust and should focus on costs and corruption rather than treating their wins as a mandate for policies they did not campaign on. She also said that Democrats didn’t sweep because of their winning message, but rather because fed-up voters cast their ballots as a rebuke of Trump and his policies.
“We should not read into these election results as a mandate for far left policies advocated only by a handful of candidates,” Smith emphasized.
VOTERS PUNISHED THE GOP OVER COSTS; NOW, DEMOCRATS FACE THE AFFORDABILITY TEST
President Donald Trump has two years left in his term, setting up a period in which Democrats say they will have to decide how much to confront him and where they can work with his administration. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
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And it appears many voters agree.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published this month indicated that nearly three-quarters of Americans wanted Democratic leaders in Congress to make a concerted effort to work with the president.