OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California believes he will be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in January 2023, and the GOP leader is already making plans to follow in Democratic footsteps when it comes to investigations.
Upset by the opposition party’s obsession with all things Donald Trump, McCarthy is making plans to hold key Democrats accountable ahead of expected investigations launched by various Republican-held congressional committees, as Newsmax reported on Sunday:
…[McCarthy] is not only preparing to turn the tables on the majority in the 2022 midterm elections, but he is also beefing up efforts for subsequent retribution for Democrats hunting down the Trump administration officials in investigations.
He is planning “preservation notices” for President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, which instructs them to save communications and documents for future oversight in Congress.
“The investigations will not be able to be carried out in a Democrat-led Congress, but in the event Republicans take over, McCarthy’s preservation notices to the Biden administration might prove fruitful to spur probes of Democrats like they have conducted of the Trump administration, including the Mueller Report, Ukraine, COVID-19, and Jan. 6,” Newsmax added, citing a report in Axios.
The political news outlet added a shortlist of possible areas where Republicans would focus:
- Origins of COVID-19.
- Leak of IRS data about billionaires.
- Alleged National Security Agency spying on Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo mobilizing the FBI and Justice Department attorneys to look into investigating and prosecuting local school board protests.
- Mass illegal immigration.
- Communications with teachers unions on COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates.
- Cloud-computing contract known as J.E.D.I.
Axios noted that as a “prelude” to possible future actions, House Republicans sent Biden a request in August to “preserve all records related to your Administration’s withdrawal … from Afghanistan.”
“McCarthy plans to beef up staff, counsel and other resources to be ready to extract information beginning Day 1 if the GOP gets the gavel,” Axios continued.
Axios claimed that the GOP probes would be an attempt to deflect from the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation, “a real-time probe of real violence, death and looting in the Capitol.” But the only death resulting from direct action was the shooting of pro-Trump protester Ashli Babbitt, who was unarmed. A Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, was initially — and incorrectly — reported to have died from a blow to the head from a Trump supporter wielding a fire extinguisher. In fact, he died a few days later from a stroke. Others who died that did were stricken by conditions unrelated to the riot.
In any event, this isn’t the first indication that Republicans plan to treat Democrats they way they’ve been treated in the Trump era.
In September, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., warned Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., he’ll be going after her phone records if the GOP takes the House next year.
“The reason Nancy Pelosi is doing this is because they want to cast this cloud of criminality,” Gaetz said.
“Nancy Pelosi better be careful what she wishes for because if the new tradition when one party gains power in the House of Representatives is that you investigate the personal records and the personal lives of the people who are out of power, well then 2022 and 2023 are going to be very difficult years for the Democrats,” Gaetz added.
“Maybe we ought to look at Nancy Pelosi’s phone records with her husband, who benefited millions of dollars off of stock trades and technology bills that were moving through the legislative process,” he continued.
He was even more blunt just last week.
“We are going to take power after this next election,” Gaetz said. “When we do, it’s not going to be the days of Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy [when there was] no real oversight and no real subpoenas.
“It’s going to be the days of Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Dr. [Paul] Gosar and myself,” he added.
