Last summer, as the Republican-led Congress continued to sputter, a prominent right-wing activist named Laura Loomer targeted a key GOP leader in a memorable way. “James Comer needs to be replaced as the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee,” Loomer argued via social media. “He has failed at all of his ‘investigations’ that have gone nowhere.”
The complaint was understandable. The Kentucky congressman spent two years launching all kinds of partisan probes, nearly all of which related to Joe Biden, and in each instance, he excited his party’s base with assurances about the possible results of his efforts. Comer, however, ultimately produced nothing. It was inevitable that far-right voices such as Loomer would get frustrated.
The problem, however, was only partially Comer’s fault. The Republican lawmaker was wrong to raise expectations, but his failure to uncover damaging information was not due to incompetence but because he was searching for scandals that didn’t exist. Even if Loomer had gotten her way and Comer had been replaced, it wouldn’t have changed the fundamental problem: There was no evidence that would bring down the Democratic president. The party was chasing a mirage.
This problem wasn’t limited to 2023 and 2024. On the contrary, the Oversight Committee chair is still chasing his white whale, still raising expectations and still generating duds. Politico reported:
The House GOP’s much ballyhooed investigation into former President Joe Biden’s alleged cognitive decline has largely ended with a thud. In a new report released Tuesday morning, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Republican majority claims to have found evidence that senior Biden White House aides ‘exercised the authority of the former president’ and concealed signs of Biden’s mental deterioration. In fact, the probe concluded with the need for answers to more questions than any appearance of a smoking gun.
Comer and his GOP-led panel released a 100-page staff report with an overwrought title, “The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House.” An accompanying press release was filled with provocative claims about “cover-ups” and declarations that make the investigation sound like a success.
“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” Comer asserted. But after months of scrutiny, the chairman delivered questions, not answers. As the Oversight Committee concluded its probe, it sent a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking the Justice Department to investigate Biden’s executive actions. It was, for all intents and purposes, a passing of the baton, suggesting the investigation will continue even as the GOP’s Captain Ahab is forced to confront an ocean entirely devoid of whales. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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