In 1950, in the midst of the United States’ “red scare,” Sen. Joe McCarthy reportedly delivered a speech with his most infamous accusation. “I have here in my hand a list of 205 — a list of names that were made known to the secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping policy in the State Department,” the Wisconsin Republican was quoted saying.
McCarthy never shared the list of names, and in all likelihood, there was no actual list. The whole point of McCarthyism was to manufacture fears and sow seeds of suspicion based on nothing, laying the groundwork for blacklisting and a witch-trial atmosphere.
If McCarthy had said at the time that he had a list of communists, but he misplaced it and couldn’t quite track it down, the GOP senator’s accusations probably would’ve had less of an impact. This came to mind yesterday, reading this HuffPost report:
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) surprised Fox News host Maria Bartiromo after a wild update on his Biden family investigation in which he claimed an informant may have gone “missing,” something he suggested was linked to “spy business.”
Oh my.
Last week, Comer scheduled a highly anticipated press conference, at which the Kentucky Republican was supposed to unveil devastating information about President Joe Biden and the Democrat’s alleged corruption. It would be “judgment day” for Biden, the House Oversight Committee chairman said, as GOP lawmakers unveiled evidence of a scandal that would make “Watergate look like jaywalking.”
A humiliating dud soon followed. After months of desperate searching and thorough investigating, Comer conceded that he still didn’t have any actual evidence against the incumbent president.
As The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson explained in his latest column, Comer’s presentation proved to be little more than a “shameless, empty exercise in rumor and innuendo.” Even Fox News was unimpressed with the Republican’s pitch.
Common sense suggested that the Oversight Committee chairman would take a step back, lick his wounds, wait for the embarrassment to subside, and reassess whether this pointless crusade was still worth the effort. Undeterred, Comer nevertheless sat down with Fox’s Bartiromo yesterday and suggested he had an important anti-Biden witness, whom the congressman can’t seem to find.
″We’re hopeful that the informant is still there,” Comer said. “The whistleblower knows the informant.”
Asked if his anti-Biden informant “is now missing,” the Republican replied, “Well, we’re hopeful that we can find the informant. Remember these informants are kind of in the spy business so they don’t make a habit of being seen a lot or being high profile or anything like that.”
It remains an open question as to whether there’s an actual whistleblower — House Republicans have, in recent months, pointed to “whistleblowers” who weren’t actually whistleblowers — whether the person is credible, and whether he or she has reliable information. As for the “informant” this person allegedly knows, there’s even less to go on. So to recap, Comer has spent months searching in vain for dirt on the president. He held a press conference that was supposed to be devastating for the White House, at which the Republican admitted he didn’t have the evidence he’d been looking for. The Oversight Committee chairman intends to keep going anyway, pursuing a lead from an “informant” — who may or may not exist — he can’t find. Revisiting a point from several months ago, when it comes to members chairing the House Oversight Committee, the Republican Party hasn’t always sent its best. Before this year, the most recent GOP chairman was South Carolina’s Trey Gowdy, who’s best known for leading a ridiculous investigation into Benghazi conspiracy theories. He was proceeded by Utah’s Jason Chaffetz, who didn’t realize that charts have y axes. Also in recent memory, California’s Darrell Issa was a relentlessly partisan GOP chairman of the Oversight Committee, following an even more ridiculous tenure from Indiana’s Dan Burton, best known for shooting melons in his backyard in pursuit of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories. Now, it’s James Comer’s turn — and the Kentucky Republican has taken his place in an unfortunate GOP club.
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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