The incoming Republican House majority is salivating to begin investigations against the Biden administration, with some in the caucus even talking about impeachment. In contrast to the numerous Democratic investigations and two impeachments against Donald Trump — which were legitimate responses to a uniquely unfit president who routinely spurned the rule of law — the GOP’s current plans are little more than tit-for-tat politics. They should keep in mind how obvious that will be to a nation that just denied their party the “red wave” everyone was expecting.
Congress has an implied duty under the Constitution to provide oversight of the president. Inarguably, both parties in modern times have weaponized the oversight process to score partisan points. Trump may well have been the most investigated president in history, with scores of inquiries launched in the two years Democrats have controlled Congress. Many Republican partisans clearly believe that fact alone merits some payback — as if the Trump probes were plain old politics. That attitude is part of the blinkered normalization the GOP has always extended to a dangerously abnormal president.
No one can deny Democrats approached their oversight duties with zeal when it came to Trump. But Trump provided voluminous, literally unprecedented justification throughout his tenure, including his inherently suspicious Kremlin coddling, his appalling family separation policy at the southern border, his use of the Justice Department to attack his political enemies and his abuse of his pardon power to reward cronies. And don’t forget his tragic politicization of the pandemic and his frontal assault on democracy itself during and after the 2020 election.
