Republicans obviously hope they will retain control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, but they're privately preparing to be the minority party according to documents obtained by Axios.
An internal party document reportedly drafted by an unnamed House Republican leader is laying out the investigations Democrats will probably pursue if they regain control of oversight.
Here's a partial list:
-President Trump’s tax returns
-Trump family businesses — and whether they comply with the Constitution's emoluments clause, including the Chinese trademark grant to the Trump Organization
-Trump's dealings with Russia, including the president's preparation for his meeting with Vladimir Putin
-The payment to Stephanie Clifford — a.k.a. Stormy Daniels
-James Comey's firing
-Trump's firing of U.S. attorneys
-Trump's proposed transgender ban for the military
-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's business dealings
-White House staff's personal email use
-Cabinet secretary travel, office expenses, and other misused perks
-Discussion of classified information at Mar-a-Lago
-Jared Kushner's ethics law compliance
-Dismissal of members of the EPA board of scientific counselors
-The travel ban
-Family separation policy
-Hurricane response in Puerto Rico
-Election security and hacking attempts
-White House security clearances
Those are just some of the 100 items included in the list circulating among congressional Republicans.
Amusingly, this list is mostly based on investigations that have already been requested by Democrats only to be rejected by House Republican leaders. So, looking at this from another perspective, you might say this is a list of things House Republicans have enabled or helped the White House cover up.
Sources who spoke to Axios say they consider Democratic control of congressional oversight to be a much bigger threat to Trump's regime than the special counsel's probe and I agree.
Some liberals and Democrats have argued over whether or not impeachment should be a central message of the campaign to retake control of Congress, but I don't think it needs to be. If Democrats retake control of oversight, impeachment could make the case for itself. Checks and balances and accountability is what we need and the rest will work itself out.
Trump has managed to turn virtually everything he touches to shit even without facing a single day of proper congressional oversight. The White House may collapse if they face a Congress that is actually willing to issue subpoenas.