Rep. Maxine Waters, the incoming chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has promised to follow the “Trump money trail." | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Congress Maxine Waters wants to investigate Trump, but her party may resist More moderate Democrats fear that oversight investigations will be a distraction or cause political blowback for the party.

Rep. Maxine Waters is running into an unexpected obstacle in her bid to investigate a president who has mocked her as a “low IQ person”: members of the California Democrat's own party.

Waters, the incoming chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, has promised to follow the “Trump money trail,” targeting the Trump Organization’s hundreds of millions in loans from Deutsche Bank, the German lender that has been under scrutiny in connection with Russian money laundering. But the committee has a handful of moderates who worry that such aggressive moves will backfire.


“The American people will understand thoughtful, well-grounded investigations," said Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat. “But they will bridle at investigations that seem overtly political."

That tension between cautious Democrats and those who want to train their subpoena firepower at the White House is being repeated throughout the House, as establishment veterans face off against progressives out for revenge against President Donald Trump.

While much of the base wants lawmakers to take on Trump and big corporations that have benefited from his tax cuts and deregulation, more moderate members fear that oversight investigations will be a distraction or cause political blowback for the party. They want to see a policy focus instead and don't want to be pulled too far to the left.

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Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who in 2016 flipped a seat long held by Republicans, said the financial services panel “ought to be able to walk and chew gum.”

“There’s a good opportunity for more access to credit and housing reforms,” he said. “Oversight’s important, but I just think we’ve got a broader responsibility."

Himes, a committee member who chairs the centrist New Democrat Coalition and also serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said Democrats should be mindful of punishment that Republicans received after antagonizing President Bill Clinton.

"There are enough questions around Deutsche Bank that it's worth getting some answers,” he said. "But again, I think we're going to need to make sure that we don't get too carried away on investigations.”

It’s not the only potential conflict Waters is facing. She’ll also likely confront resistance from moderate Democrats on the committee who aren’t eager to bash bankers. Some have been willing to work with Republicans to ease rules for large financial institutions in recent years, even when Waters wasn’t.

Finance industry watchdogs are hoping that Waters will use her gavel to advance new consumer protections and shine a light on how the Trump administration's and Wall Street's wrongdoing may be hurting Americans.

They’re less interested in exposing Trump’s ties to Russia. Dennis Kelleher, who advocates for tougher Wall Street regulation as president of the nonprofit Better Markets, said Deutsche Bank’s business conduct is worth an investigation but the American people don’t care whether Trump got a loan from the bank “20 years ago.”

“The American people are sick and tired of politics,” he said. “What the Democrats have to do is have a robust policy agenda that concretely resonates with Main Street Americans, who care about their jobs and their wages and their retirements.”

With Democrats raising concerns, Waters in recent days has sought to reassure her colleagues that she will focus on policy and that investigations will not bog down the committee, lawmakers say. She gave what Himes said was a "very deliberate and thoughtful" presentation to members.

Waters has said she wants to tackle housing, credit reporting reform and supporting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She has touted her pragmatism and ability to work across the aisle, including a bipartisan bill she negotiated this year to ease financial market rules.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), a senior committee member, said policy will be the committee’s main priority and that investigating Deutsche Bank will not be a focus, despite the attention it’s getting.

“We’re coming here to try to get some stuff done,” he said.

But even drilling down on Wall Street may be a challenge for Waters, who once called for Wells Fargo to be broken up in light of the fake customer-account scandal that affected potentially millions of Americans. She has introduced legislation that would punish big banks that hurt their customers by threatening to put them out of business. She has cited that bill as one of her accomplishments in her pitch for chairwoman.

Before the election, Waters jarred the financial industry by pledging at an event to do to banks “what you did to us,” a moment captured on video that went viral. It’s a tone that’s not going to be echoed by a number of other Democrats on the committee.

“We have to make sure we take care of folks, but I don’t think the answer is going after sectors writ large,” Gottheimer said. “That makes no sense.”

Some committee Democrats such as Gottheimer have received significant backing from the financial industry and have been more willing to support policies that would benefit the largest banks.

When Waters led a letter to the Federal Reserve in September asking the central bank to refrain from lowering big bank capital requirements, it tellingly contained signatures from only about half the committee’s Democrats.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), a senior member of the panel, said his constituents in the finance industry “want a fair shake.”

“Unfortunately, sometimes you have people on Main Street who say let’s get rid of Wall Street, and you have Wall Street who’s insensitive to the needs of Main Street,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how we can bring the two together — force the industry to be more transparent and open with Main Street and Main Street beginning to know and feeling that they’re not going to be taken advantage of by Wall Street.”