Matthew Miller and Tucker Eskew — veterans of high-profile campaigns, now partners at Vianovo, a bipartisan management and communications firm — write in a note to clients Tuesday that a "tsunami of Congressional oversight" is headed straight for corporate America if, as is likely based on history, Democrats win the House in November's midterms.
- "It's going to be so much worse than they expect," Miller tells Axios.
Why it matters: Companies "that prepare in advance stand a much better chance of emerging with their reputations intact," the partners write. "The subpoenas are coming. The only question is whether companies will be ready."
State of play: The Vianovo note says that "due to two key changes in Congressional Democrats' thinking, the focus on corporations is likely to be more intense than ever, and executives who are not prepared risk being swamped by a legal, political, and media onslaught."
- Larger corporations are likely to be the focus since for Democrats on the Hill, aggressive oversight of private companies is "a means for exposing alleged abuses by the Trump administration."
- From their experience with the first Trump administration in 2019 and 2020, Democrats know the White House is likely to refuse to turn over documents. So administration probes "will be supplemented by piercing corporate investigations."
Among the possible focuses of Democratic oversight probes: algorithmic pricing; health care; crypto and digital assets; utilities and energy; trade and tariffs; and AI and tech.
