Republicans plan their resistance in a future democratic house

"If the investigations were to be as fierce as we expect, it would be beneficial for Republicans to have a fighter in this position as it will simply be throwing bombs at all times, and you want the people can back off, "a Republican House assistant told CNN.

Another Republican adviser said about the monitoring committee: "We can not have a wallflower … it has to be a bulldog."

A new reality

Republicans in the House or Senate do not want to talk about minorities in the middle of elections. Some members with whom CNN contacted refused to speak or said that they would not answer hypothetical questions about a reality that they hoped would not happen to them.

Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said that he would "cross this bridge when we get there."

"I'm not ready to concede that," said Kennedy.

"It's a different mentality," said former Rep. Charlie Dent, a Republican from Pennsylvania. "I went from majority to minority, it's a humiliating experience."

In addition to not defining the agenda, members of the minority recruit less staff on committees and are forced to adopt a reactive position rather than control the message with the hammer.

Tim Chapman, president of Heritage Action, told CNN that he had asked his leaders to try to develop a legislative agenda to counter the Democratic polls on Capitol Hill and to prepare the party to win in 2020. He was losing his party.

"So many people are now looking for a way to keep the House in. People are too busy to go to plan B," Chapman told CNN. "If (the Democrats) come to the House, we all know what's going to happen, we know exactly what the different roles are, the Democrats are going to investigate, they're going to override, and the Republicans will have to argue that it is bad for the country ".

Commission places have great implications

Republicans will have many vacancies on their congressional committees next year, and the legislators they have chosen to lead the expert groups will determine how Republicans will react over the next two years. years they are in the minority.

This is particularly true in the Judiciary Committee, which would be in charge of all impeachment proceedings, and the Oversight Committee, whose Democratic President would have considerable leeway to investigate the President and his activities.

Republican sources say that if Jordan 's candidacy failed, he could try to enlist the support of lawmakers from the Freedom Caucus to get a seat at the top of one of these committees, which would give Republicans a dog. adoring attack fighting against Democrats.

A source close to Jordan said that the Republican of Ohio was focusing solely on his candidacy for the post of president and was not thinking about the committee positions.

Jordan refused to discuss committees next year, telling CNN last week that he was running as a speaker. Freedom caucus chair Mark Meadows also declined to discuss his prospects or Jordan's prospects for the next convention.

Several other Republicans who did not make themselves heard in the fights against Russia and the FBI already run openly for the Republican Committee's slots.

Georgia's Doug Collins and Ohio's Steve Chabot are both suing the Judiciary Committee, while Oklahoma's Representative Steve Russell is seeking to lead the oversight committee. Conversations with members of the Republican Steering Committee, which selects the leaders of the committee, are already underway.

Collins told CNN that he was focusing on keeping the Republican majority. But if Democrats take power, he hopes to find ways to work together on legislation and reform – even if he expects Democrats to try to use the panel for his own. To attack Trump, and he would be ready to backtrack.

A careful balance

Republicans say they've drawn a series of lessons from control over the Obama administration after the 2010 elections that might be useful to Democrats if they took control in November.

The fireworks that usually consumed the Oversight Committee often made headlines and animated the conservative base while they found the Attorney General guilty of contempt of Congress, were investigating the 39 and IRS held a hearing at the time of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

However, in the minds of some members, Republicans have sometimes been overwhelmed – and they believe that Democrats could easily make the same mistake.

A Republican candidate for re-election who requested anonymity told CNN that the House would be "stuck" by partisan struggles around investigations just as the country is preparing for a presidential election.

"If these are just investigations for investigations, then I think the best thing to do is let them do it and expose it," said the Republican. "If they are investigating to impose the president's agenda, I think the best thing to do is help the American people to see what's really going on."

The solution for Republicans will be to decide when to retaliate and when to let democratic control speak for itself. On one side, a mid-term election in which Republicans are forced to return to the minority is a referendum on Trump, which could dissuade them from wanting to take on some of the more actions. Controversial Trump administration which, up to this point, many Republicans have retained their criticisms.

Republicans will also have to choose their moments to protect Trump, however. A Republican aide told CNN that some were beginning to study how the Obama administration was handling congressional requests for oversight and summoning, which could allow Trump to respond.

"The power of assignment is interesting, to use it or not to use it," Pelosi told Dana Bash at the CITIZEN conference organized by CNN for a day. "It's a good arrow to have in your quiver in terms of trading on other topics."

Wrap their own investigations, too

As election day approaches, Republicans are eager to complete their joint inquiry into how the FBI and the Justice Department handled the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations.

The investigation is being conducted by the Speaker of the Judiciary of the House, Bob Goodlatte, and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Trey Gowdy, who are retiring at the end of the year. Even if Republicans retain control of the committees, Goodlatte and Gowdy are expected to publish a report or summary of their findings before the convening of the new Congress, according to Republican sources.

Talks intensified even outside parliamentary sessions – three witnesses appeared last week and three more are scheduled for this week – while Democrats reported that the investigation would fail if they controlled the House.

"This whole set of questions has been designed for television, and the sooner we can stop it, the better," said Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin.

It is arguable that the largest committee to date has fought against Russia and that the Justice Department has been held in the House Intelligence Committee, where legislators have remained deeply divided. as to the outcome of the investigation of the panel on Russian electoral interference.

"It's been two years since we forcibly fed this Russian Kool-Aid with the American people," Nunes told Fox News last month. "Now it's been so long since it's scary to see the mainstream media, many Americans who have brought in this Kool-Aid in Russia – it's really, really scary."