Hillary Clinton says Republicans might probe Trump if the party risks losing in 2018

Hillary Clinton believes it’ll take a political thrashing before Republicans on Capitol Hill are willing to intensify their scrutiny of President Donald Trump and his administration’s potential ties to Russia.

At the moment, the House and Senate — through the chambers’ intelligence committees — have started asking current and former White House officials to share more information about their communications with officials in Moscow. A related probe is under way at the FBI.

But Clinton criticized Republicans in Congress, particularly in the House, for failing to probe the president deeply enough. A veteran of the bipartisan commission that reviewed another Republican in the White House — Richard Nixon — and the Watergate scandal, Clinton said onstage at the Code Conference that lawmakers should have formed a bicameral, bipartisan special committee to look into Trump and his administration’s conduct.

During Watergate, GOP lawmakers at the time were “not happy about investigating a president of their own party but they were open to the evidence,” Clinton said. And in 2017, she added: “We don’t have that right now in the Republican majority in the House.”

But Clinton stressed the sentiment might shift if GOP lawmakers begin to think they’re at risk of losing their majority in the House or shedding some much-needed seats in the Senate.

“The only point I would make is if the Republican leadership begins to believe that Trump is a big political burden to them, then they will begin to be more open to a more thorough investigation,” Clinton said.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.

That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via