Rep. James Comer, the new Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, appeared on Fox News over the weekend, and shared a few thoughts on some diamond Hunter Biden received from a Chinese businessman several years ago. Here was the pitch the GOP congressman took to Fox’s viewers:
“That diamond was given to Hunter at about the time these documents were being transported to different locations. It’s very concerning. Two ways the Chinese try to launder money into the United States are through the art world and through diamonds. Do you see a connection here?”
I’m going to assume that was a rhetorical question.
In context, the Oversight Committee chairman’s comment about “these documents” was in reference to President Joe Biden, or at least those who packed his belongings in years past, handling classified materials several years ago in a sloppy way. In other words, the ongoing presidential controversy, as far as Comer is concerned, might secretly be connected to the Democrat’s son.
This is a weird theory, to be sure, but it’s also quite predictable. I’m reminded of a column from The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank, published last spring, examining Comer’s signature preoccupation.
“So, to recap,” Milbank explained, pointing to the GOP congressman’s rhetoric, “Hunter Biden controls cobalt in Congo, fentanyl in Mexico, coronavirus in Wuhan and war in Ukraine. It is just a matter of time until Republicans find a Hunter Biden angle in Jeffrey Epstein’s demise and UFOs off the coast of California. ‘Where’s Hunter?’ went the popular refrain at Trump rallies. Now we know. In the Republican imagination, Hunter is everywhere.”
Note, exactly one day after House Republicans secured their majority after the 2022 midterm elections, Comer held a news conference to tell reporters that his Hunter Biden conspiracy theories were “kind of a big deal.” A month later, after the Biden administration successfully negotiated Brittney Griner’s release from Russia, Comer thought the smart thing to do would be to connect the developments to Hunter Biden. Now the president’s previous handling of classified materials is receiving scrutiny, and the Kentucky congressman’s focus once again turns to — who else? — Hunter Biden. If Comer thinks he’s helping himself with this odd fixation, he’s mistaken. You’ve heard of the boy who cried wolf? Meet the committee chairman who cried Hunter.
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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