Pelosi says she views Trump’s warning about investigations as a ‘threat’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday pushed back against President Trump’s declaration in his State of the Union address that “if there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.”

“That was a threat,” Pelosi told reporters after a Democratic Caucus meeting. “The president should not bring threats to the floor of the House.”

{mosads}Pelosi expressed disbelief that Trump would openly try to discourage Democrats from pursuing oversight investigations.

“He said he wasn’t going to cooperate unless we didn’t exercise our constitutional responsibility to oversight,” Pelosi said.

Trump in his State of the Union address Tuesday night said that “an economic miracle is taking place in the United States — and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.”

Other Democrats scoffed at Trump’s suggestion.

“We will not be bullied by the president of the United States,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

“That said, we are not going to overreach, we’re not going to over-investigate, we’re not going to over-politicize our constitutional responsibility,” Jeffries said on Wednesday.

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who’s expected to preside over many of the investigations into the Trump administration, also dismissed Trump’s notion that oversight would impede cooperation on legislation.

“Of course, the Constitution requires us to do both. That is exactly how it works,” Cummings said in a statement Tuesday night.

The House Ways and Means Committee’s oversight subcommittee is slated to hold a hearing on Thursday about legislative proposals to require presidents, vice presidents and major-party nominees to release 10 years of tax returns. Democrats have long been pushing to use the Ways and Means Committee’s power to request Trump’s tax returns from the Treasury Department.

Trump broke with decades of precedent by not releasing his returns during the 2016 presidential campaign.