President Trump attacked Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) on Twitter on Sunday after she said in an interview that House Democrats have discussed jailing allies of the president who refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas.
“A despicable human being!” Trump wrote in a tweet that also retweeted commentary on the matter by White House social media director Dan Scavino, who accused Democrats of planning a “coup.”
Tlaib said in an interview with Deadline Detroit that House Democrats have had “serious conversations” about using Congress’s inherent contempt power.
{mosads}Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) also floated the idea of using the power of inherent contempt on Wednesday, even saying that he thinks “it’s time to call in the sergeant-at-arms and march” off Trump officials and allies who refuse to comply with congressional investigations to “our little jail,” which he added Congress does “happen to have.”
“Let them sit there and cool off for a while,” he also said.
The White House this week said it would not cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry.
In an eight-page letter the White House sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and three Democratic committee leaders on Tuesday, White House counsel Pat Cipollone accused House Democrats of violating the Constitution by opening an impeachment inquiry into the president over his dealings with Ukraine.
Later on Wednesday, Trump appeared to walk back the letter while speaking at an event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Trump said then that he would cooperate with Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry if “they give us our rights.”
However, he added that he wouldn’t be inclined to cooperate with the inquiry if Democrats “say you can’t have lawyers, you can’t ask questions, you can’t have anybody present, all of these crazy things.”