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One of the more common Republican complaints about the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack is that the effort to overturn the election and gut our democracy just wasn’t that important — and certainly isn’t deserving of such careful congressional scrutiny.
Donald Trump’s political action committee is running ads, for example, arguing that Congress should instead focus on current events such as gas prices and baby formula. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy this morning called for primetime hearings on inflation. Other GOP voices have made similar comments this week about immigration.
Part of the problem with this is that the pushback is obviously insincere — the former president and his allies are clearly desperate to shift the focus away from the latest devastating revelations — but just as notable is the fact that Republicans don’t actually have any governing solutions for any of these policy challenges.
It’s not as if GOP majorities in the House and/or Senate would suddenly get to work next year advancing an ambitious policy agenda addressing issues they believe have gone neglected by Democrats. On the contrary, the Republican Party at the national level remains a post-policy party offering little more than tweets and soundbites.
What would GOP majorities on Capitol Hill focus on? Investigations. Lots and lots of investigations.
Instead of governing, Republicans have begun making plans to investigate Hunter Biden. And the right’s conspiracy theories surrounding Big Tech. And Dr. Anthony Fauci. And Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Yesterday, as The Hill reported, a striking new addition to the list emerged.
House Republicans announced their intent to conduct their own investigation into the Jan. 6 committee should they overtake leadership of the chamber. The minority on the House Committee on Administration sent a letter asking the select committee investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol to preserve all its records, a preamble to obtaining those documents in what would become an investigation into an investigation.
Rep. Rodney Davis is currently the ranking member on the House Administration Committee. Yesterday, the Illinois Republican said that if there’s a GOP majority next year, he’ll become the chairman, at which point he’ll launch “a full investigation” into the Jan. 6 committee and its efforts.
In other words, Republicans don’t want to investigate Jan. 6, but the party is clearly on board with investigating the investigation.
If Davis’ name sounds at all familiar, especially in this context, there’s a good reason for that: When House GOP leaders were invited to choose five members to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy included Davis among the party’s choices.
He would’ve joined the panel — Davis was among the Republicans who weren’t rejected by House Democratic leaders — but McCarthy ended up boycotting the probe, which was a decision we know was an enormous tactical error.
Nevertheless, Davis appears to have something of a revenge plan in mind for the next Congress.