As Republican investigators go after President Joe Biden on multiple fronts, the GOP has quietly split into two broad factions: One wants to pretend that everything is going well, while another is furious that everything isn’t going well.
The former contingent is bigger, louder, and tends to dominate. To hear these Republicans tell it, GOP investigations have produced devastating revelations, and they have their rascally political opponents right where they want them. Many of these Republicans are well aware of the fact that their boasts are wrong, but they’re also convinced that if they just keep playing make-believe, it’ll advance the party’s political interests, and much of the base won’t notice the difference.
But for the other faction, pretending isn’t good enough. These Republicans aren’t satisfied with simply advancing the party’s political interests; they’re looking for actual results, and they struggle to contain their frustration by the GOP’s inability to deliver those results.
The division was on display last week when former special counsel John Durham appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. While most of the panel’s GOP members went along with the idea that Durham’s lengthy investigation was a great success — reality notwithstanding — it fell to Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz to complain that the special counsel hadn’t actually done anything meaningful for the party or its conspiracy theories.
It’s not that Gaetz and Durham were on separate sides of a political divide. Rather, this was a situation in which the Florida congressman wanted the special counsel to produce findings and prosecutions the party could exploit, and Gaetz expressed his great frustration that the Durham probe was a dud — even as other Republicans preferred to pretend otherwise.
Steve Bannon, a veteran of Donald Trump’s White House and a leading far-right media personality, is part of the same contingent. The Hill reported:
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon had harsh words for Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) over what he viewed as a poor interview performance Thursday on Fox News. “You have to be prepared!” Bannon said on his online show, chastising the House Oversight and Accountability Committee chairman. “You are not serious. It’s all performative.”
Hours earlier, the House Oversight Committee chairman, still pushing a “bribery” controversy he can’t substantiate, appeared on Fox News to help promote his conspiracy theory. Fox’s Steve Doocy urged the Kentucky Republican to explain why he sees the president as part of a “crime family.”
Comer said, “The crime is trading policy for money.” The co-host asked which policy, to which the GOP lawmaker replied, “Well, we’re going to get into that.”
Of course, Comer has talked about “getting into that” for months. There’s never any follow-through because he’s failed to find credible evidence. In fact, just yesterday, his Democratic colleagues pointed to evidence that further discredits the entire line of attack. All of which left Bannon seething. From The Hill’s report: [Comer’s] answer drew the ire of Bannon, a right-wing pundit who has been very critical of the Biden family. Bannon said that Comer should have been better prepared and been able to list specific instances of crimes and policy changes during the interview. “It’s simple, take your No. 2 pencil out and write it down,” Bannon quipped. “How about this? Get a staff. Hire some outside people. Let’s see some of these great people in town that know this stuff backwards and forwards. Why are they not on your staff?”
Again, it’s not that Bannon and Comer are opponents. Rather, this was the latest instance of the larger partisan divide: While much of the GOP is content to go along with the foolish notion that Comer’s investigation is going well, Bannon knows better — and he’s not pleased. Be on the lookout for other Republicans willing to admit that Comer’s probe is “not serious” and it’s “all performative.”
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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