Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told the Democratic National Committee's gathering in Texas on Saturday that a Democratic majority in Congress would launch investigations into figures behind the 2008 financial crisis, the decision to go to war in Iraq, and the Justice Department's handling of Jan. 6 cases.
"The bankers who caused the great financial crash in 2008—they belong in jail. The officials who led us into the Iraq War—they need to be investigated. The Justice Department should never have delayed the Jan. 6 cases that led Trump back into power," Khanna said from the DNC podium. "When we take back the House, when we take back the Senate—we subpoena, we investigate, and we prosecute."
Khanna is one of the more prominent figures in the party's progressive wing and spoke before the full DNC committee. His remarks landed as Democrats and Republicans alike are framing the November 2026 midterm cycle—in which all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are on the ballot—as a referendum on which party controls congressional oversight authority.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) made Democratic investigative ambitions a central Republican message as far back as June, when he addressed the Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference. "They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they'll go after the president's family, the Cabinet, his donors, and friends," Johnson said. "Half of you in this room will be targeted."
Khanna's Saturday remarks also took aim at a broader class of people he described as above accountability. "We hold accountable the powerful who stole from this nation, who dodged this nation, and who kill innocent people on the streets in this nation," he said.
The California congressman also backed abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the DNC meeting, a position that exposed a fault line within the party. The committee itself was divided on whether to call for ICE's elimination or its reform. Khanna came down firmly on the side of abolition. "When I say we stand with workers, that includes our friends and neighbors who prepare our food, build our homes, and care for our children. That is why we must abolish ICE. It is a cruel, rogue agency," he said.
Beyond the midterms, Khanna has made little secret of his ambitions for 2028. He told NPR this week that he is "thinking seriously" about a presidential bid. His remarks at the DNC came as the committee also approved a 2028 presidential primary schedule that awards South Carolina the first slot.
Khanna identified Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel by name when describing what draws him toward a White House run. "These folks would have been the conquerors in a different era. They kind of think of themselves as above you and I," he told NPR. "And when I'm actually most inclined to run, I think, 'I know these people.' I understand the economic future, and I will have the guts to stand up to them."
His profile inside the Democratic caucus has grown through a series of cross-aisle moves. He has worked alongside Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to press for release of the Epstein files—a pairing that generated attention in both parties. He has also endorsed candidates in key 2026 midterm races, using those endorsements to build relationships with Democratic voters in competitive districts ahead of any national campaign.
The mechanics of what Khanna is proposing depend entirely on whether Democrats win House and Senate majorities in November 2026. Committee chairs set the investigative agenda; subpoena power flows from the majority. Without those majorities, the pledges made in Texas carry no institutional weight. With them, every committee assignment and chairmanship becomes a variable in how broadly any investigative agenda gets pursued.
Khanna's positioning at the DNC meeting reflects a deliberate effort to own the populist lane inside the Democratic Party heading into a presidential primary cycle. The 2008 financial crisis and the Iraq War are more than two decades old, but neither has produced a major criminal prosecution of senior figures—a gap Khanna is betting still resonates with the party's base.
