President Trump called freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “despicable human being” after she said House Democrats have considered jailing his allies who don’t comply with subpoena requests.
Trump added the comment about Tlaib to a post from Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media. Scavino had posted an article about Tlaib with the caption, “Sounds about right. COUP!”
Tlaib, 43, is a member of the so-called squad, a group of progressive Democrats that also includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Although unlikely, the Michigan congresswoman told Deadline Detroit that some House Democrats have discussed the logistics of arresting Trump administration officials who don’t comply with congressional subpoenas, an action called inherent contempt.
“If they were to detain someone, where would they go and have them detained so that they can comply with the subpoenas?” Tlaib asked, echoing comments she previously made to constituents on the matter.
“There have been actual serious conversations about what the logistics would look like … if we did have to force someone through a court order to come before the Congressional committee,” she said. “This is pretty uncharted territory for many of us and even for Congress.”
The Trump administration has said it doesn’t consider the House's current impeachment inquiry to be valid because it was launched by Democratic leadership in the chamber without a floor vote. The inquiry began with a whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump improperly pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country.
