A leading House Democrat is already talking about how her party might use power after the midterms.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned this week that Democrats are leaving "all options on the table" in regard to the wave of anticipated investigations into President Donald Trump and his family. That includes potentially impeaching Trump for a third time after they retake control of the House and Senate in January, the Daily Mail reported.
She even suggested that Supreme Court justices could also face scrutiny, and their potential ouster. Speaking to CNN's Manu Raju, the New York Democrat detailed how her party is slated to potentially wield the gavel next year following historic victories in the midterm elections.
Asked directly whether Democrats might seek to impeach Trump for a third time in January, she declined to rule out the possibility. "I mean, I think we should leave all options on the table. Absolutely," she told Raju.
She then turned to the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority and to conservative justices she suggested had shielded Trump from accountability. "Of course, this Supreme Court as well has also kind of legalized a lot of his criminality," she said of the court and Trump.
Ocasio-Cortez further declined to rule out impeachment proceedings against Supreme Court justices, though she declined to identify any individual justices or specify in any detail what conduct would warrant that kind of action. "We'll see," she said, when pressed on the question. "We'll approach it. But I think all options are on the table," she said.
Her remarks come just days after House Republicans blocked an effort brought by outgoing GOP lawmaker Thomas Massie of Kentucky to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The failed effort sparked renewed questions over whether Democrats may try to revive similar efforts against Trump or other Cabinet officials when they retake the gavel in January.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, 76, has recently sought to dispel rumors that he is weighing retirement before Democrats take control. His retirement would hand Trump an opening to push through a younger justice while Republicans still control the Senate, until January, when Democrats are sworn in.
Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, previously rejected that notion outright, saying that politics was "not a factor" in his thinking. He has used a spate of recent interviews tied to the release of his recent book to reiterate that he has no plans to leave before the end of the term.
Retirement is "something I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term," he told CBS News' Jan Crawford earlier this year. Alito said at the annual Federalist Society dinner on Thursday, "I think I can still make a contribution." "And it's hard to give up the opportunity to do something that I think will be good for the Constitution and good for the country as long as I'm able to do it," he said.
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