The New York Times reported yesterday:
House Democrats, recovering from their failed push to remove President Trump from office, are making a sharp pivot to talking about health care and economic issues, turning away from their investigations of the president as they focus on preserving their majority.
They’ve decided not to call John Bolton but I guess they’re hoping Bill Barr will actually show up at the end of next month. But if he doesn’t, well …
The Republicans, on the other hand, are going full speed ahead:
Senators are reviving the fight over the whistleblower complaint at the center of the months-long impeachment effort against President Trump.
With Trump’s trial in the rearview mirror, the Senate Intelligence Committee is quietly shifting its attention back to its investigation into the complaint process after hitting pause on the inquiry as the impeachment effort consumed Washington.
The probe will force senators to decide if, and how, they speak with the whistleblower — a controversial call that could test the bipartisan reputation the Intelligence panel has maintained even amid deeply partisan fights in Congress.
Asked by The Hill if he was willing to formally compel and subpoena the whistleblower to testify, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) didn’t rule out the possibility.
“I think you can rest assured that I’m prepared to do whatever we have to to interview the whistleblower,” Burr said.
Meanwhile, rest assured that they are following up on the all-important Hunter Biden scandal:
The New York Times reported that Senate Republicans on the Finance Committee and Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs had requested documents related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine last year, a request that the Treasury Department has complied with.
The request suggests Republican senators are looking into Hunter’s finances using standard protocols for Senate investigations. But some Democrats are accusing the administration of complying with this investigation in a way that it refused to in the impeachment inquiry.
The Senate Finance Committee chair, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, pushed back on this allegation, according to the New York Times:
“It’s unfortunate that Democrats whom we’ve kept in the loop on our investigations would recklessly seek to interfere with legitimate government oversight,” said his spokesperson; Grassley also reportedly confirmed the investigation is ongoing.
The former Judiciary Committee chairman Grassley is sadly suffering from an advanced case of Fox News brainrot:
So we needn’t fear that the scandals will fade as we move into the exciting electoral terrain of government health care financing mechanisms. The Republicans are now on the case. We might even get some back yard watermelon shooting if we’re lucky.