5 targets for congressional Republicans in the event that they win in November

Home Republicans are already setting targets for congressional oversight within the occasion they win management of the decrease chamber in November, an consequence that polling suggests is more and more possible.

Presently within the minority by a slim margin, Republicans have thus far been denied the investigative instruments of Congress: the power to name hearings, problem subpoenas, and demand paperwork.

However with polls forecasting important positive factors for Republicans throughout the nation in November, congressional Republicans are already planning how they’ll wield their investigative energy in opposition to Democrats subsequent yr.

HUNTER BIDEN

The president’s son is prone to be among the many most outstanding of the Home GOP’s investigative targets if the occasion secures a majority.

Inquiries into Biden are prone to take a number of totally different paths.

The White Home has so far deflected questions on how Hunter Biden has collected earnings for his artwork. Ethics specialists had warned final yr, when Biden started exhibiting his work at a ritzy SoHo gallery, that his foray into the artwork world might probably permit events to buy entry to the Biden household.

Home Republicans might dig into who has purchased items of Hunter Biden’s artwork over the previous two years and whether or not any of these prospects acquired favorable therapy from the White Home.

Revelations from information discovered on Hunter Biden’s deserted laptop computer, which the Washington Examiner has independently authenticated, have uncovered facets of his in depth overseas enterprise dealings that Democrats sought to downplay earlier than the 2020 election.

These embrace substantial earnings from work with Chinese language entities and a high-paying place on the board of a Ukrainian vitality firm.

Home Republicans have demonstrated curiosity in exploring whether or not any of Biden’s enterprise relationships created a battle of curiosity for his father when serving as vp.

AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL

Home GOP lawmakers are already gearing as much as dig into the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan final summer season.

Republicans have mentioned they wish to examine the behind-the-scenes deliberations that led to a sequence of choices about the place to pay attention U.S. personnel and sources within the lead-up to the chaotic evacuation.

The administration determined handy over management of close by Bagram Air Base, for instance, weeks earlier than U.S. residents and allies obtained caught in a violent bottleneck on the Kabul airport.

Biden administration officers on the time shared typically contradictory interpretations of what intelligence experiences recommended in regards to the Taliban’s energy and probability of taking on the nation.

And the blended messages from Joe Biden’s crew led to public hypothesis about whether or not the White Home was forthcoming in regards to the methods wherein its planning for the withdrawal fell quick.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI

The nation’s most ubiquitous physician is prone to come below the microscope in a GOP-controlled Congress.

Home and Senate Republicans have each indicated they wish to probe Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose outstanding position within the pandemic response of each the Trump and Biden administrations has earned him scorn from the Proper and adulation from the Left.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has led a cost to look into Fauci’s data of allegations that the Chinese language authorities coated up an unintended leak of the virus from its virology lab in Wuhan.

Republicans have additionally demanded solutions as to why Fauci, within the earliest days of the pandemic, advised the general public masks wouldn't cease the unfold of the virus, solely to reverse course and aggressively promote mask-wearing for the remainder of the pandemic.

Fauci’s outsize public profile has made him the face of a pandemic response that GOP lawmakers have attacked and are prone to probe extensively, even when all strains of inquiry don’t run straight via him — from cooperation between the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and lecturers unions to the way in which the CDC has disclosed the info surrounding vaccine effectiveness.

BIG TECH BIAS

Congressional Republicans are reportedly planning to haul executives from social media platforms earlier than Congress to reply questions on what they describe as bias in Large Tech.

A Republican operative who labored with congressional aides lately on their preparations for forthcoming investigations advised Axios that Large Tech corporations might anticipate “doc requests and subpoenas and depositions” subsequent yr.

Whereas Home and Senate Democrats within the present Congress have investigated Large Tech for various causes, wanting into what they see because the business’s failure to cease the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation, Republicans are prone to deal with practices that restrict the attain of sure content material for partisan causes.

Individually, Republicans have additionally vowed to pursue laws that might rein within the energy of platforms equivalent to Google and Fb; their investigative efforts are prone to feed their efforts to push regulatory modifications to the business.

BORDER CRISIS

Maybe no different problem has united Republicans of their criticism of the Biden administration like the frenzy of unlawful immigration on the southern border.

Republicans have recommended they wish to goal Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas particularly in addition to the Division of Homeland Safety’s operations extra broadly.

Some congressional Republicans have even floated the concept of impeaching Mayorkas in the event that they safe a big sufficient majority.

Biden’s choice to rescind most of his predecessor’s immigration insurance policies preceded an virtually quick uptick in unlawful immigration, which rapidly overwhelmed the administration’s sources on the border.

Republicans are prone to examine the administration’s deportation technique as nicely. Whereas Biden administration officers have constantly mentioned they're eradicating many migrants who cross the border illegally, DHS numbers have proven the administration is definitely performing comparatively few removals because it fights to finish one of many solely authorities below which it has deported migrants.