When President Trump announced that he was installing , his combative, controversial aide, to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, it occurred to me that this shuffling of the deck, and others undoubtedly to come, should be viewed with an eye toward the investigations that will top Congress’s agenda when Democrats take control of both chambers in January.
Polling attendant to the midterm election, in which Republicans were wiped out, indicated that corruption was a top concern of voters — of slightly more concern than even high prices, according to an oft-cited Fox News poll from October. I suggested to Rich on the podcast last week that at least some of this owes to the Democrats’ message discipline (and the dutiful media amplification thereof). I take a back seat to no in insisting that officials and their cronies must be held accountable for public corruption; but I am skeptical — to put it mildly — of Democratic campaign rhetoric that framed administration self-dealing as a material cause of high prices and sticky inflation. Regardless, people dislike both public corruption and high prices, so the implication that one causes the other is appealing even if dubious.
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