By Don Terry | Friday February 06, 2026 | 4 min read
When House Oversight Chairman James Comer decided to subpoena Bill and Hillary Clinton to testify about Jeffrey Epstein, he may have believed he was delivering a political masterstroke. Instead, many Democrats argue he has opened a door Republicans will soon wish had stayed shut. In their view, Comer hasn’t just escalated a partisan fight — he has established a precedent that could fundamentally reshape how Congress treats former presidents and their families.
Democrats aren’t whispering about this. They’re saying it out loud.
California Rep. Ted Lieu, a member of Democratic leadership, told NBC News that if Republicans can haul in a former president and first lady under threat of criminal penalties, then Democrats can do the same. “We are absolutely going to have Donald Trump testify under oath,” Lieu said, noting that he has spent years highlighting Trump’s own ties to Epstein. The message was unmistakable: if Comer wants to play with fire, Democrats are prepared to bring gasoline.
Veteran Democrat Steny Hoyer, who has served in Congress for nearly half a century, called the move “a big deal” and suggested that Trump himself might not appreciate the implications. Others were even more blunt. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a young progressive on the Oversight Committee, said Democrats “100%” intend to use the new standard Republicans have created. “Donald Trump, all of his kids. Everybody,” he said.
Rep. Mark Pocan, a former chair of the Progressive Caucus, framed it in even starker terms: “What goes around comes around.” He argued that while Trump may enjoy the spectacle of the Clintons being dragged back into the spotlight, he won’t enjoy what happens when the subpoena power flips.
And then there’s Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a frequent foil to Comer in committee hearings. He warned that Comer is effectively writing the playbook for the next Democratic majority. “It will be crypto. It will be their business. It will be all the investments in the Middle East,” he said. “When Don Junior and Eric and their children… when they’re all here, they can thank James Comer for that.”
This is the heart of the Democratic argument: Republicans have normalized something that was once unthinkable — compelling former presidents and their families to testify under threat of prosecution. Once that line is crossed, it’s crossed for everyone.
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Even Donald Trump seems to understand the danger. Asked about Comer’s decision to drag the Clintons into an Epstein hearing, Trump — usually eager to attack the Clintons — suddenly softened his tone. Observers noted that this was one of the rare moments when Trump appeared to recognize that a political weapon pointed at his rivals today could be pointed at him tomorrow. If Democrats win the House this year, he knows impeachment is not just possible but likely. “Those folks don’t play,” one Democratic aide said. “They don’t peddle conspiracy theories like Republicans.”
Some Republicans have even floated a more provocative theory: that Comer’s move is so politically reckless that it almost looks intentional. “It could be that Comer hates Trump and wants Democrats to punish him,” one strategist joked — half seriously.
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Whether or not that’s true, the broader point stands. Comer’s decision has changed the rules of engagement. For decades, Congress avoided dragging former presidents and their families into public interrogations, not because it lacked the power, but because both parties understood the consequences of breaking that norm.
Comer broke it.
And if Democrats take back the gavel, they say they won’t hesitate to use the very precedent Republicans just handed them. In Washington, every action creates a reaction. Comer may have won a short‑term headline, but he may also have guaranteed a long‑term headache — not for the Clintons, but for the man who still leads his party.
What goes around, they warn, is coming around.