Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said he will work with the Trump administration, even as he sharply criticized Trump’s actions just hours into taking office.
“I'm going to work with the Republican Party and with this President to advance the interests of my constituents,” Himes said.
Himes spoke on Friday from Southport Harbor in Fairfield, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is undertaking a $1.2 million dredging project. The funding came from the federal government, which is now controlled by a Republican dominated House and Senate, although with a slim majority.
Himes said he was elected to provide for his constituents. One of them, Fairfield First Selectman Bill Gerber, said he does think about what the new administration will focus on with federal funding for projects like the dredging.
Gerber, a Democrat, says another project that Himes’ office is helping with is the turning over of a former armory to the town. He just hopes projects like those can still get funding.
“I am certainly worried about it, and how that could filter down to the local level,” Gerber said. “A lot of the money that we get from the state is really from the federal government and administered by the state, and fingers crossed, that we will be able to keep moving our important projects forward, and we don’t know what will happen,” Gerber said.
Himes said he will continue to advocate for his constituents in Connecticut’s fourth congressional district, in the southwestern part of the state, even as he and other officials will act as a bulwark against Trump’s agenda.
In a social media post on the “X” platform, Himes later criticized Trump for pardoning Jan. 6 riot participants.
“His decision to pardon them is a grotesque abuse of authority and a betrayal of the office he now holds,” Himes said.
At least 11 Connecticut residents prosecuted for their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, have been pardoned or had their sentences commuted by Trump. Patrick McCaughy III, of Ridgefield, was released from federal prison in Ohio and is returning to Connecticut.
McCaughy was found guilty of assault and sentenced to over seven years in prison after a widely circulated video showed him pinning a police officer against a doorframe.
Himes and other elected officials such as Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, have condemned Trump’s pardons since he took office Monday and his attempt to end birthright citizenship, enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Himes who consistently criticized Trump’s actions during his first term in office, and voted to impeach him , along with the entire Connecticut congressional delegation, said he was elected to advocate for his constituents, and that means, as other officials have said, working with his republican counterparts.
“I may have to work with this president. I may have to work with people on the other side of the aisle, and so that's my job, and that's what I'm going to do,” Himes said.
