[R]oughly 11,300 Vermonters tuned in to a telephone town hall on Tuesday night with Rep. Peter Welch, seeking advice on how to work with and challenge President-elect Donald Trump.
Welch, who won easy re-election to a sixth term, said he was shocked by the outcome of the presidential race, particularly because the polls showed Hillary Clinton so far ahead and, Welch said, because he wanted to believe the numbers too.
During a 45-minute discussion, the Hartland Democrat said he was disgusted by Trump’s campaign rhetoric that vilified Mexicans, Muslims and women too. But he also said Trump clearly connected with people who feel as though the Democratic Party is not doing enough.
“He won votes from constituencies, working class people that the Democratic Party has always believed it was here to serve,” Welch said. Later, he said many working class people are feeling there is “massive economic and cultural inequality.”
“It’s going to be different down here, that’s for sure,” Welch said. “It’s going to require all of us to readjust … and require me to do my job differently.”
Welch vowed to fight efforts to undo the Affordable Care Act but said he would work with Trump if he pursued programs such as a national infrastructure overhaul.
Paul Burns, the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, applauded Welch for “taking one for the Vermont team” serving in Washington and encouraged him to push for renewable energy and efficiency programs, as well as continuing to fight for policies to combat global warming.
One caller wondered about Trump’s mental stability. Welch noted that Trump is sending out tweets in the middle of the night and, he said, improperly responding to the “petty humiliations” that are part of being president. The congressman also agreed with a caller who objected to some of Trump’s Cabinet picks, including Stephen Bannon, a key Trump strategist who formerly headed Breitbart News, a controversial right-wing media outlet.
A caller from Williston encouraged Welch to try and work with Trump and said “compromise is not a dirty word.” Another asked Welch to push for the nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. Welch said he was very concerned about who Trump might nominate to the high court.
Welch didn’t take a strong position with a caller who wanted to get rid of the Electoral College and elect the president by popular vote. Clinton won more votes than Trump but lost the election in the Electoral College. Welch emphasized the need for Democrats to connect with the working class instead of focusing on how to change the electoral system.
Welch vowed to fight “tooth and nail” any effort to curb civil liberties of any group.
Welch applauded President Barack Obama and said he was surprised the president’s accomplishments didn’t carry Clinton to victory. Among those he mentioned were recovering from the 2008 economic downturn, the successful bailout of the auto industry, an increase in renewable energy projects, a deal negotiated with the Iranian government and the nomination and confirmation of two women, Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, to the Supreme Court.
“We had, in my view, two terms of a president long on dignity and very short on scandal. It just wasn’t there. And what a relief for America,” Welch said.
Welch said he would do his best “in this turbulent time” to promote Vermont values of fiscal responsibility and tolerance and to work with Republicans.
One Republican Welch has worked with in the past is U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, which Welch sits on. Chaffetz was a guest on a 2011 town hall phone call with Welch regarding the war in Afghanistan, and the two traveled to Libya together in 2013.
Before the election Chaffetz assumed Hillary Clinton would be elected president, and he promised to thoroughly investigate her work as secretary of state, as well as any potential business conflicts at the Clinton Foundation.
Welch said in a followup call Wednesday that he was waiting to pass his ultimate judgement on Trump’s business ties until the president-elect lays out his plan to wall himself from his company on Dec. 15.
But Welch insisted that Chaffetz should still begin investigating Trump’s financial ties across the globe, and he was one of 17 House Democrats who penned a letter to Chaffetz on Monday calling for a formal probe into Trump’s business entanglements.
“Our role should be to conduct vigorous investigations of government activities, including at the executive branch,” Welch said Wednesday. “We should have the same level of aggression in our oversight of the Trump administration as was displayed towards the Obama administration.”
Welch said Democrats, himself included, will push Chaffetz to schedule hearings on Trump.
“Chaffetz has held some very partisan hearings,” Welch said. “I thought the Benghazi hearing with Clinton was very partisan, but others held by him have been very consistent with the mission of the oversight committee.”
Welch also said Wednesday that he voted for incumbent House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Wednesday’s leadership election. Tim Ryan, a Democratic congressman from Ohio, ran an upstart campaign against Pelosi claiming she was out of touch with rural voters who backed Trump.
The final tally in Wednesday’s leadership vote gave Pelosi a big win, 134 to 63.
“We got hammered in this election, we lost the presidency when we thought we were going to win it,” Welch said. “But we can’t blame Nancy Pelosi for that.”
“As Mr. Trump begin to unfold his legislative agenda our challenge will be to show what the reality of that is, and how it helps or actually or hurts working class people,” Welch concluded. “That’s hard work for the Democrats to do.”
