Jarrett Renshaw, Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Although the U.S. midterm elections will be held in 10 months, President Joe Biden’s administration, along with his allies, already see a potential scenario where Republicans would take control of the Senate and the House of Representatives. They also plan to start a series of investigations that could lead to an attempt at impeaching him.

Strategists, lawmakers, and congressional staffers predict that there will be a lot of investigation into the Biden administration. This is especially true if Republicans who are loyal to President Donald Trump win important seats on Congress’ committees.

House Republicans Matt Gaetz (House Republican) has pledged to launch investigations against the Department of Justice until the “sphincters tighten.” Bob Gibbs (who has been pressing to impeach Biden from September over the Afghanistan withdrawalout), and James Comer (a candidate to head the House Oversight Committee).

His office stated that Comer is targeting Hunter Biden, President’s son, as well as the handling of vaccine mandates and supply chain issues by the Administration. It also wants to remove Trump’s military academy appointments.

Already, the White House took small steps to protect its administration against aggressive probes.

To oversee the implementation of $1 trillion in infrastructure legislation, it hired Mitch Landrieu (an ex-New Orleans Mayor) as its special advisor. Republicans are likely to scrutinize this for any fraud.

In order to deal with chaos resulting from last year’s U.S troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, The White House also strengthened the Legal Counsel’s Office with a long-standing Democratic communications official.

Biden’s team formed the White House Counsel’s office as part of his transition plan after his win in 2020. This was to prepare for Republicans taking control of the Senate.

Georgia elected Democrats to control the body in the January 2021 election. However, the counsel’s office has the legal muscle.

Andy Wright (director of legal policy at the transition team) stated that “we had every reason believe that it would be Republican Senate.” “That was part of our original plan.”

Jonathan Su, who is familiar with handling White House investigations, was appointed as Biden’s deputy attorney.

Strategists say that the Biden White House might hire additional researchers, lawyers, or communications officers to help with its investigations.

Ben LaBolt is a former Obama spokesperson. He said that teams assembled by the Clinton White Houses were roughly equivalent in size and experience to those of congressional committees investigating.

“You need to have a parallel structure at the White House that’s capable of anticipating those attacks, responding to those attacks,” he said.

A White House adviser stated that Biden is planning to visit states in which key political races are represented this year. The White House also hopes Democrats will retain majorities in Congress because of the COVID-19 rollout and its legislative achievements.

Expect the Democratic National Committee to invest heavily in races such as Wisconsin or Pennsylvania. This will be vital in 2024.

Eric Schultz, an ex-assistant to Barack Obama and a key adviser, said the Republicans will “run the same play in November but it’ll be even less unhinged” and less credible if they win. He is a spokesperson for the Obama White House, which was responsible for handling investigations.

“They’ll subpoena everything under the sun,” said Richard Painter, former associate counsel under Republican President George W. Bush.

Republicans can look at the Justice Department investigation of Trump supporters’ Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and stop the congressional investigation if that investigation is ongoing.

“We are going to go after this administrative state, and we are going to start at the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Gaetz said, referring to Jan 6.

Both the COVID-19 related $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan”, and the infrastructure law are unpopular among Republicans, despite bipartisan support. They would be closely examined.

“There’s no doubt Republican lawmakers are going to pour over documents and all this spending will see unprecedented scrutiny,” said Amy Koch, a Republican strategist in Minnesota who helps state and federal candidates get elected.

IMPEACHMENT and HUNTER BODEN

Some Republicans already want to impeach Biden. Four Republicans led by Gibbs have filed articles for impeachment about immigration and how the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was done.

House Republicans Andy Biggs (right), Brian Babin (left), and Randy Weber (right) are all present with Gibbs. Separately Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles of impeachment on the same day that Biden was sworn to office.

“There will be a lot of pressure on Kevin McCarthy, if he’s speaker, to pursue impeachment of Biden from day one. He may not have much of a choice if he wants to retain the title,” a Republican congressional staffer with ties to leadership said.

If Republicans win control of the chamber, McCarthy will succeed Nancy Pelosi as Democratic House Speaker.

Trump and Republicans became interested in Hunter Biden’s son during the 2020 elections. He was accused of wrongdoing for his time on the board at a Ukraine-based energy company. A Ukraine review found no evidence.

“There will be a lot of this Hunter stuff, and a lot of it is going to be unfair to Biden, and a lot of it is going to be personal,” Painter predicted.

House Democrats twice impeached Trump, once over Ukraine and again for his actions ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, but he was acquitted by the Republican-controlled Senate both times.