Why Hope Hicks’ small hearing in Congress means so much

When Democrats and Republicans are at each other’s throats, it’s sometimes better to keep an eye on the small things rather than the large 2020 campaign launches

It can be difficult sometimes to move focus from the circus of Donald Trump’s re-election campaign or how the Democrats are shaping up for 2020 to the less glamorous but important day-to-day workings on Capitol Hill.

But if we want to keep across what the White House is doing, and whether congress is doing its job, we have to look at government spats. The division and in-fighting can be difficult to stomach sometimes, but it is important.

Take for example the questioning of former White House official Hope Hicks on Wednesday. Trump’s White House has exerted executive privilege in order to prevent Hicks from talking about her time working around the Oval Office – but Hicks was mentioned a number of times in Robert Mueller’s Russia report, and the Democrats demanded a hearing because of that.