The Coming Republican Investigations
With the majority they will weaponize the investigatory power of the House
So what will the Republicans do now that they’ll have the power to investigate, subpoena, etc.? It’ll be open season on the Biden administration. The question is, how far will they go overboard. Here’s what I see coming.
The Afghanistan Withdrawal. This was a disaster. There should have been an investigation started weeks after the fiasco. The Biden Administration clearly made mistakes. Big ones. And they left a lot of our allies behind.
While the Republicans could turn this into a circus, in this case they have the opportunity to handle it reasonably and it will still reflect horribly on Biden. Expect a lot of clear wins on this for the Republicans.
Illegal Immigration. This is a complete disaster. Again, there should have been an investigation launched on this years ago. I think it was not in part because Congress is also scared of this issue because fixing it will require Congress to step up and make hard choices.
But this will be too tempting. And there can be lots of speeches about build the wall. This will likely be a lot of yelling, lots of finger pointing, and we’ll see a ton of examples of poor implementation. And some of this will be deserved.
Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to get a resolution to this problem out of any investigation. And so it will remain as a whipping boy. With that said, again a legit investigation but one that will likely become a political fight.
Hunter Biden. This one will be bad. Joe Biden is going to be beat up over his son’s actions. And even worse, he’s going to have to watch the Republican’s bully his son and he won’t be able to do anything about it. This is going to tear him apart.
And while oversight in this case is valid, the Republicans will almost certainly go overboard and in doing so, it’s going to backfire on them big time. The country will not look kindly on them beating up someone’s son and seeing the father in pain because he loves his son so.
Ukraine Oversight. Again, a valid investigation. I’m hopeful on this one that the Republicans will put mostly grown ups on this because there is substantial support for Ukraine in the GOP. And there will be 2 or 3 crazies trying to make something out of nothing. This I think will go ok, which the crazies will find frustrating.
Alejandro Mayorkas - HHS. He’s widely viewed in D.C., by members of both parties, as a failure in his role here. So easy pickings. They’ll make his life miserable, the Democrats will put in some effort defending him but their heart won’t be in it.
And the Republicans will drive him out. Which will thrill them as they’ll have a clear win to put up on their board.
Impeach Biden. The crazies want this more than anything. Their GOD Trump was impeached and that’s grounds for impeaching Biden in their book. But with a House majority of 41, they can’t get the votes to impeach. And trying & failing is worse than not trying.
So expect an ongoing fishing expedition that looks for anything & everything. My guess is this will have a fair number of the crazies on the committee as this is one of their major demands of McCarthy. And it’s an easy thing to give them.
I don’t think this will backfire on the Republicans, unless they manage to do something really stupid. But I don’t think it will help them at all outside of their base. It will become background noise. And if they do find something real, because it’s all been noise, that will likely not resonate.
The Big Lie. If they’re stupid, and I think the crazies will force McCarthy to do this, they’ll have an investigation on “election security.” They’ll parade every one of the conspiracy theory nuts in front of the committee and it’ll be on TV because it will be like watching a giant car crash in slow motion.
What’ll this do? Help cement in to voters minds that the Republican party is a bunch of conspiracy nuts who have drunk the Kool Aid. Their base will love this which will keep them going. And the majority of America will watch this and figure these morons should never be allowed to run anything. So big win for us Democrats.
Fauci/COVID response. Another investigation it’ll be dumb for the Republicans to do. And another one the crazies will force on McCarthy. They’ll find legitimate issues to raise. They can have a deep discussion about the impact remote schooling has had. But they’ll most likely turn this into a litany of all kinds of crazy pseudo science. And again the majority of America will watch this and figure these morons should never be allowed to run anything. So big win for us Democrats.
If the Biden Administration wants my suggestion2, cooperate fully, dump everything to these committees immediately, and push as hard as you can to get through this ASAP. If these are wrapping up in a year they'll have little impact on the '24 election.
While cooperating, be the grown up at the table. Let the crazies spout off. You’ll come out ahead with the public. And on the Hunter issue, let everyone know you love your son and that this is really hurtful. Being open about that will help you get through it.
Oh, and once they get warmed up against Mayorkas, have him resign, appoint Kristen Sinema as HHS Secretary, and then Governor Hobbs can appoint Representative Grijalva (or another) to that seat. Lovely to have an investigation blow up in their face.
My guess at the time of writing (7 seats remain undecided).
Does President Biden read my blog? You never know…