Shortly after the 2022 midterm elections in which House Republicans reclaimed a majority in Congress’ lower chamber, GOP leaders created the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which would be chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. At the time, this was supposed to be a pretty big deal.
The purpose was obvious: In GOP circles, there’s a popular conspiracy theory about rascally Democrats and the “deep state” working in secret to politicize agencies and use the levers of power against innocent Republican victims.
Jordan and his like-minded colleagues, the party assumed, would use the “weaponization” panel to uncover evidence of such plots and prove that Democrats had engaged in outrageous abuses.
Or that was the idea. Unfortunately for the right, Jordan failed spectacularly to uncover much of anything, leading to complaints from disappointed conservatives and headlines about the GOP-led crusade being “a dud.” The Washington Post reported in 2023 that the subcommittee’s work had proved “lackluster” and “lacking in substance.”
The problem, however, wasn’t limited to Jordan’s woeful efforts. The real concern was foundational: Republicans were chasing a conspiracy that didn’t exist. GOP lawmakers failed not because they were incompetent, but rather because they were chasing a mirage.
That’s what happened in the last Congress. In the current Congress, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has become something of an afterthought, but it apparently still exists and is still led by Jordan. According to the panel’s website, it hasn’t done anything in roughly 16 months. But to the extent the subcommittee, its members and its staff are interested in trying to do some meaningful work, I have good news: There’s plenty of new evidence that the federal government is actually being weaponized. Indeed, it’s not exactly a well-kept secret that Team Trump has gone to ridiculous lengths to weaponize everything from the FBI to the Pentagon to the Justice Department. A subcommittee that is dedicated to uncovering evidence of federal departments being used as partisan tools against perceived political opponents could, at any time, start to issue subpoenas and hold hearings, which would generate an avalanche of the kind of evidence Jordan and his colleagues said they were interested in finding. So what do you say, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, care to go back to work? Or is the panel only interested in the purported underlying scourge if it means going after Democrats?
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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