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“I’m going to keep coming back to it; we have to get the House back,” Bell said to a group gathered on Facebook to toss questions at him during a one-hour conference.

With as many as 40 people attending online at any one time, Bell stressed that with his Democratic Party not controlling the House, it lacks the power to initiate certain legislative action.

Given that shortcoming, House Democrats are working to form working relationships with Republicans, Bell said.

“We’re talking with folks across the aisle,” Bell said. “We’re waiting for them ... to get upset and push back” against funding cuts that eventually will impact Republican constituents.

“That’s why 2026 is so important,” said Bell, who noted that he already has stepped forward to offer his campaigning services for other candidates.

As part of the plan to foil Trump’s current drive to freeze federal funding, Bell told the audience that House Democrats have worked with sympathetic organizations to file lawsuits against some of Trump’s moves.

“I think something like 70 suits have been filed,” Bell said, “and in 18 preliminary rulings, I think we’ve won something like 15.”

One of the powers House Democrats now lack is the ability to subpoena witnesses — something Bell said he would love to do with Elon Musk.

On the subject of Musk, the chief cost-cutter for Trump’s administration, Bell echoed the primary talking point that Democrats have hammered in the media since Trump took office.

Bell, as a member of the House Oversight Committee, said Democrats on the committee would “love to subpoena” Musk, who he described as “this billionaire and his teenage crew going through our (personal) data.”

Should Democrats regain the House in 2026, Bell said, Musk “will be held accountable (and) brought to Congress to answer our questions.

In another Musk moment, Bell responded to a caller’s question and said his office now is registered on Bluesky, a social media application much like Musk’s X platform.

Then in the most entertaining, and seemingly least prepared response of the evening, Bell said he also plans to remain on X.

“Pardon the language,” Bell said, “but I think it’s kind of badass to go at him on his own platform.”