House Republicans are already rolling their eyes at House Oversight Chairbilly James Comer’s plans to investigate Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the “border czar” circlejerk and connections to China, respectively, with one anonymous member telling Axios the probes are “unnecessary… We have an election to win. Don’t make these people martyrs.”
“Moderate” Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon went on the record to say it’s “fair” and worth trying, but only if the investigations are handled “professionally.” We’ll just go ahead and say because it’s Comer this means that Bacon is not actually on board with these efforts. One member was in favor, saying “These will be the two most powerful people in our country. There has been no regular primary process. Congress has a legitimate oversight role to ensure we understand their roles and interests… this is the best way to bring light.” That member stayed anonymous, because despite the self-serving “legitimate oversight role” bullshit hedge, it was still a too obvious an admission that they only started these “investigations” because Joe Biden stepped aside – for reasons that had nothing to do with the spectacular failure that was the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry.
From a purely tactical view, this is actually what Republicans need to do. One more time with this point we keep hammering: When they piss and moan about Trump not “focusing on the issues” what they’re really saying is they need a new Benghazi or at the very least a more effective and original version of Hunter’s laptop. Manufacturing such “vulnerabilities” for Harris and Walz to hand to Trump so he can spew it at every stop on the trial is absolutely what the GOP should be doing.
The problem is that James Comer is grossly incompetent and more importantly even if he was good at his job he doesn’t have the time required to slap this shit together and let it percolate into the minds of persuadable voters. If these investigations are rushed and conducted with an air of pained desperation – which they will be – the most likely outcome is that it’s a wash, performative base maintenance material for Fox News circlejerks with no effect downstream. Pushed too hard however, it could certainly end up backfiring if those persuadables notice the impotence.