The contrast between the two chambers may become quite pronounced during the 118th Congress.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine told The Bulwark Senate Democrats could pick up the slack where these investigations have fallen off in the House. Whether they will need to do so depends on which route Republicans take over the next two years—a serious one, or a frivolous detour.
“We may do some of our own work here to tell a more accurate story—that would depend on what the investigation is,” he said. “But if the House wants to go from a legislative body into a body that’s just trying to get headlines on weird investigations, they may feel like at the end of the day they can pat themselves on the back because they got on a cable news TV show. But I don’t think they’re going to be impressing their voters.”
Kaine added that the Democrats’ best course of action will be to ignore hyper-political investigations that come out of the House committees.
“I think if they spend the next year talking about Hunter Biden instead of health care, housing, and gun violence, we won’t have to do much,” Murphy said. “They may dig their own grave.”