Republicans are about to take their revenge on Joe Biden | Moira Donegan

Expect a slew of investigations into everything from the Afghanistan withdrawal to immigration at the southern border

Joe Biden needs to lawyer up. He's about to see an onslaught of investigations into him, his appointees and their conduct that will now be launched by Republican-controlled congressional committees. It's not impossible that a Republican-controlled congress could even try to push for his impeachment.

The Republicans squeaked out a bare majority in the House of Representatives this week, with a final tally of 218 Republican seats to 211 Democratic ones. The Republicans performance was abysmal compared to the predictions, with anger over abortion bans and Republican antipathy toward democracy driving voters into the Democratic tent. But the huge structural advantages of being the opposition party in a midterm election, along with some help from gerrymandered redistricting plans blessed by the Republican-majority US supreme court, pushed the Republicans over the top. Now, they are poised to use their new investigatory power in Congress to launch a slew of inquiries into the Biden administration, over matters ranging from the grave to the absurdly trivial.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist