Kamala Harris tells Democrats to get ruthless on Trump corruption

Kamala Harris has a blunt instruction for the Democrats who just flipped Congress: get ruthless. The former vice president posted on X Wednesday telling the party's newly elected officials to squeeze every lever of power they now hold to hold the Trump administration accountable for what she calls deep-seated corruption.

Harris said voters made themselves loud and clear on Election Day — done with the corruption, incompetence and callousness she says is coming out of the White House, plus what she described as the capitulation of Republican leaders. Her ask: use every available tool to deliver economic relief for working families while pressing the administration on corruption. She also congratulated Democratic candidates and volunteers, adding that the real work of delivering results now begins.

The backdrop is a big one. Democrats flipped Congress and took the majority, with the latest projection putting them at 228 seats in the House. That new power is exactly what Harris is telling her party to wield — and not quietly.

Not every Democrat is framing it as a fight. Representative James Talarico pushed back on the retribution talk Wednesday, saying voters didn't send Democrats to Washington to settle scores. Their mandate, he argued, is lowering costs, rooting out corruption and getting the economy back on track.

Across the aisle, Vice President JD Vance offered his own postmortem on the Republican loss, pointing to the war against Iran as the cause. He leaned on a pre-election poll showing voters who abandoned the party — including some who had backed President Donald Trump — shifting away. Meanwhile, Washington Democrat Rick Larsen launched a bid to chair the House Transportation Committee, Politico reported, citing a letter to the caucus; he's been the panel's ranking member since 2001 and has no known rivals for the post.

Reaction is landing overseas too. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Wednesday that American democracy is alive and well after the midterms flipped Congress, calling the vote neither questionable nor contested — a pointed nod to earlier worries about election integrity and hints from Trump that he might not accept the results. In a democracy, Barrot said, it's the people who write their own history.