Last fall, the day House Republicans learned that they’d secured a majority in the wake of the 2022 midterm elections, Rep. James Comer held a press conference for a specific reason: The GOP congressman, who’d soon lead the House Oversight Committee, saw an opportunity to talk about his Hunter Biden conspiracy theories.
When reporters on hand for the event tried to ask about other pressing issues, Comer brushed them off. “If we could keep it about Hunter Biden, this is kind of a big deal, we think,” the Kentucky congressman said.
It was never altogether clear what the “big deal” was or why Comer seemed so excited about it, but the press conference was in keeping with the House Republican’s general m.o.: Comer has been so preoccupied with President Joe Biden’s son that the Oversight Committee chair has cultivated an odd talent for connecting Hunter Biden to all sorts of unrelated controversies.
This week, Comer managed to temporarily put aside his preoccupation with the president’s son. That seemed to offer a refreshing change of pace. Unfortunately, however, as The Washington Post reported, Comer merely shifted his attention to the president’s other son.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) criticized a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for not prosecuting President Biden’s late son when he was still alive, a notion the White House slammed as “despicable.”
The underlying story is a little convoluted, but it involves U.S. Attorney David Weiss — who was appointed by Donald Trump — who prosecuted a Biden donor who made illegal contributions. There’s no evidence that the president or his team knew anything about the donor’s efforts, but Comer nevertheless appeared on a far-right podcast this week to argue, for reasons unknown, that Beau Biden — the former Delaware attorney general who died of brain cancer in 2015 — was caught up in the controversy.
“This U.S. attorney had had dealing, had an opportunity to go after the Bidens years ago. In fact, it was Beau Biden, the president’s other son, that was involved in some campaign donations from a person that got indicted as well,” Comer told Lou Dobbs. “But, you know, nothing ever happened. So I don’t know much about this U.S. attorney other than he’s had an opportunity to investigate the Bidens before and he chose not to. We all know that he’s just been silent for a long time.”
Here's the audio of James Comer suggesting that President Biden's late son Beau should've been indicted. Really low stuff. pic.twitter.com/MPhTjfzXmk Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, appeared on MSNBC yesterday and called Comer’s rhetoric “appalling” and “despicable,” and she had a point. There’s no evidence connecting Beau Biden to the donor in question; Beau Biden can obviously no longer defend himself against baseless allegations; and if the Oversight Committee chairman has information implicating the late state attorney general in some kind of campaign finance controversy, the Republican has kept it to himself. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added in her briefing, in reference to Comer, “To make the statement that he did is incredibly ugly and inappropriate.” It’s no secret that the Oversight Committee chairman appears fixated on the president’s family, but given the Kentuckian’s latest comments, it seems Comer should choose a new hobby.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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