Republicans’ Investigatory Revenge
By: Alex Salvi
Tags: Elections, Politics, Congress, News, Government

The election of Trump in 2016 was met with large scale disbelief. Many let-wing pundits floated the very same improbability of electors stepping in to save the day that many conservatives are voicing today. Then came the claims that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russian government during the election. Before long, it was the subject that plagued national newspapers and cable news shows in a declining industry desperate for a rejuvenation. The possibility of an election conspiracy was a topic that offered a life line.

The public pressure not only forced the appointment of a special counsel, but the president’s allies to support it. It was a storyline so effective that even Republican-control across the three branches of government couldn’t shake the allegations. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions (a former Trump campaign advisor) recused himself from overseeing the investigation due to his due to his own conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Then, Robert Mueller would be tasked to conduct the probe by Rod Rosenstein, the man President Trump himself nominated as deputy attorney general. The investigation had the support needed to not only be launched off the ground but sustained for nearly two years. The scrutiny was able to live on, not by a constant flow of substantive findings but, instead, the possibilities raised by the media and the public’s willing to participate.

This raises a question for Republicans as they prepare for a Biden administration: Is there enough public support to get their desired investigations off the ground? President Trump has reportedly voiced his desires for a special counsel to investigate allegations of voter fraud and the tax affairs of Hunter Biden, but any such designation would carry with it the optics of a political vendetta. This would presumably soften the backlash in the event the newly inaugurated president were to quash the investigation. This is the issue U.S. Attorney John Durham faces despite receiving special counsel status from Attorney General William Barr prior to the announcement of his resignation. Any action taken by President Trump and his Justice Department will need to overcome the accusation it’s nothing more than revenge, much like Democrats were able to do when they forced the appointment of Mueller in 2017.

A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found 70 percent of Republicans don’t believe the 2020 election was free and fair. This figure is likely strong enough to apply pressure to Republican lawmakers (who evidently felt some pressure when they signed onto the Supreme Court case filed by Texas). Yet, strictly partisan calls won’t maintain the perception of legitimacy. In the same poll, only eight-percent of Democrats said they believe the election was not free and fair, showing the split along party affiliation.

From a democratic perspective, the distrust in our political system is alarming (not to mention the 33.2 percent of eligible voters who didn’t participate in the last election). It’s possible Republicans could use the issue to call for a more thorough review while pointing the finger at Democrats who will surely argue any such effort would be a waste of time and resource, to which those on the right will cite “Mueller!” whataboutism to justify greater scrutiny. But, even Mueller saw far greater support at the inception of his review.

A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found 63 percent of all voters agreed with the Justice Department’s appointment of Mueller as a special counsel in 2017, with 80 percent of Democrats supporting the move along with 50 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of independents. There was a much greater appetite behind the effort to investigate Trump-Russia collusion than we’ve seen thus far for election fraud (or anything related to Hunter Biden). This could change if the GOP were to focus more heavily on the allegations over the coming weeks, but it would likely need its allies in right-wing media to help facilitate any such narrative in order to make a substantive impact.