During a packed town hall at the Sequoia Conference Center in Eureka on Monday, North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman began by giving his dismal overview of the state of affairs on Capitol Hill before taking questions from the audience.
The Second District representative currently running for an eighth term in the House was blunt in his assessment of the Republican-led Congress, saying he believes the party’s members have ceded the powers bestowed to the Legislative branch in the Constitution over to the president.
He noted a lack of investigation into Trump’s international tariffs and the recent diesel deal with Russia that could negatively impact Ukraine.
“What we’ve seen in the last nearly two years is really unsurprising, because Donald Trump has shown us exactly who he is, what he stands for, what is important to him, how he operates,” Huffman said. “But what is surprising is that the check and balance on that kind of leader …. It’s just been missing. This Congress thinks it works for that guy. And so there has been zero oversight, zero investigations into all of this corruption and self-enrichment, all of this madness.”
In answering a series of questions one by one — with topics ranging from the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to the political power wielded by Christian nationalists and corruption in the Trump administration — Huffman told those gathered that things will begin to change when the Democrats retake Congress.
Among other concerns raised by audience members were the administration’s attempts to block the decommissioning of dams on the Eel River, whether certain Congressmembers could be denied seats if their allegiance to the Constitution is questioned and the unfounded allegations of voter fraud Trump continues to level.
To address the corruption in Washington, Huffman told those gathered, legislative and financial power needs to be restored to Congress.
“Our republic is supposed to work the way our constitutional order lays it out, and that means the power of the purse is with Congress and the president does not have discretion to just say no when Congress says, ‘This is the amount that you’re allowed to spend or that you’re required to spend.’ But this president has some extreme theories,” Huffman said. “Donald Trump has blasted past anything Nixon thought of doing back in the early 1970s and this Congress just has no interest in doing anything about it. So you can pass all the laws in the world, if you have a Congress that just doesn’t want to exercise its authority, they’re not going to mean a heck of a lot.”
With regard to the Eel River, Huffman said he will make sure there is accountability for the Trump administration’s intervention if Democrats end up with a majority in Congress.
“I have written really fantastic letters to everybody about this. When you’re in the minority, sometimes that’s the best you can do. But if I am holding a gavel in the majority in the next Congress, those letters will be backed up with subpoena power,” Huffman said. “And we will get to the bottom of this. And we will expose this political charade for what it is, to enable folks to move on with the real solution for the Eel River.”
After one speaker expressed worries for the well-being of Ukraine and wondered if there were any private companies that could offer aid, Huffman said he shared her concerns about how Trump is making decisions in favor of Russia’s government despite Congress’s position on the war.
“Most members of the House and Senate support Ukraine and are very concerned about Russia, and yet this president is just plowing ahead with what he’s doing,” Huffman said. “So all I can tell you is that an election is coming, elections have consequences, and if you want a Congress that will take its Article I responsibility seriously and rein in presidents who do things like this, try to get U.S. foreign policy back on track, and make it more reflective of our values, vote.”
Another audience member asked about influence of the Trump administration on the U.S. Postal Service, describing how he’s been receiving mail with a Freedom 250 — a Limited Liability Company created to handle the planning and hosting of the United States’ 250th anniversary in July — validation stamp.
A ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, Huffman said an ongoing investigation by the House panel shows a high level of politicization surrounding the LLC’s events and that donations from corporations and foreign countries, along with public funding, were used to create a “black box of a slush fund” for Freedom 250, according to Huffman, who added the committee also found evidence of data being harvested from U.S. citizens who signed up for the celebration.
“There’s just so much wrong with what has happened, with the hijacking of our 250th, turning it into an absolute partisan spectacle, enriching the president and those around him off of all of that stuff, and doing who knows what with millions of Americans’ private data,” Huffman said. “We are continuing that investigation. You’ve just added another thing that I will look into, but it’s just awful.”
With several people asking about his book No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism, Huffman said it’s not as simple as amassing votes. To get to the root of the problem, he said, the separation of church and state must be reinstated and protected. Huffman said what he’s heard from many constituents is that they want a separation of church and state but there seems to be lack of interest in addressing the issue among his own party.
“The Republicans are operating like there is a default national religion, and it is theirs, and their agenda is to advance it,” Huffman said. “My party is just completely tied in knots on this subject. And what I argue … is that Democrats have a golden opportunity here, because most Americans want no part of a right-wing theocracy. Most Americans really support the separation of church and state.”
In response to being asked about reaching younger voters, Huffman responded, “It’s hard to get young people to come to a town hall like this and, frankly, who can blame them when you look at our politics and how toxic it is and how disconnected from the things they worry about it has become. A lot of them are tuning out. It’s dangerous, and we all really have to continue to try to draw them in in every way we can.”
Huffman said the Democrat party is expecting a lot of attempted election interference from the Trump administration as the election deadline draws closer, and he said they have prepared in advance.
“We have done more [planning] games for over 100 different scenarios. And House Democrats are lawyered up, the Democratic Party is lawyered up. We won’t be surprised by any of this, I promise you,” Huffman said. “But the best way to prevent all of these things we worry about is to just make sure everybody votes and make this thing big.”
Griffin Mancuso is a California Local News Fellow placed with North Coast Journal, Inc. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, or griffin@northcoastjournal.com. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
This article appears in The Eureka Chinatown Monument.