“This press conference from Congressman Comer revealed nothing new and was just the same warmed over leftover conspiracy theories Bannon and Giuliani have been peddling for years. At this point Comer and the MAGA Oversight Committee have the credibility of a sentient My Pillow commercial.” – Facts First USA President David Brock
It was judgment day for Rep. James Comer who showed he is still all hat and no cattle. In an embarrassingly underwhelming press conference, Comer at least showed us he cares about the environment because all he did was recycle old news. Let’s take a look at some of the things he said.
FACT: COMER ADMITTED HE’S FOUND NO CONNECTION TO PRESIDENT BIDEN, DESPITE REPEATEDLY PROMISING HE WOULD
Asked if he could show proof for his claims that President Biden was involved, Comer offered no hard evidence and deferred saying, “we believe that the President has been involved in this from the very beginning” and “we’re going to continue to look.”
- COMER: “It all points back to Joe Biden, and we’re gonna continue until we get the truth to the American people. But I can tell you this, Sean, the walls are closing in on the Biden family.” – Fox News, Hannity, 4/19/23
- COMER: “We hope to have a press conference very soon to update the American people, and if anyone in the mainstream media is really gonna care about it, we have a lot of new information.”- Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 4/23/23
- COMER: “So it’s gonna be judgment day tomorrow for the White House, and it’ll be very interesting when they see evidence because the White House and American people are used to a lot of congressional investigations that never provide any evidence.” – Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 5/9/23
He Could Have Just Read The Multiple News Investigations And Not Wasted American’s Taxpayer Dollars
- “Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden.” – Wall Street Journal, 10/23/20
- “There is no evidence in the records that Mr. Biden was involved in or profited from the joint venture. Encrypted messages, emails and other documents examined by The New York Times do not show Hunter Biden or James Biden discussing any role for the former vice president in the project. Mr. Biden’s tax returns, which he has released, show no income from any such venture.” – New York Times, 10/25/20
- “To this day, none of those allegations, a staple of Trump’s campaign rhetoric, has been proven […] The Post, in an extensive report, did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC.” – Washington Post, Fact Checker, 2/21/23
- “The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020.” – Washington Post, 3/30/22
FACT: SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS (SARS) ARE LIKE GETTING A FRAUD ALERT FROM YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY, IT DOESN’T MEAN CRIMES WERE COMMITTED
- “[Comer] needs to get his facts straight. Even if as many as 150 SARs were filed concerning Hunter Biden’s business dealings — a number that remains unconfirmed — that does not mean that he committed ‘serious crimes’ or that banks were ‘pretty confident’ that a serious crime was committed. Instead, these reports are merely tips that something may be suspicious — raw intelligence that still needs to be vetted, confirmed and possibly investigated. Comer earns Three Pinocchios.” – Washington Post, Fact Checker, 10/19/22
Just Look At All The SARs Filed In James Comer’s District Since He’s Been In Office
- Since James Comer was elected in 2017, 49,418 SARs were filed in counties in his district in Kentucky. According to S. census data, there are approximately 748,599 people living in Comer’s district, which means there have been roughly 15 SARs filed per person in his district since he took office. – FINCEN, Accessed 5/8/23; U.S. Census Bureau, Kentucky 1st Congressional District, Accessed 5/8/23
FACT: COMER IS THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS HIS INVESTIGATION IS TRANSPARENT AND CREDIBLE
- Washington Post: “Democrats allege Comer has withheld evidence, misrepresented witnesses” – 4/6/23
- Axios: “Top committee Dem accuses Comer of misrepresenting Biden family probe” – 4/6/23
- Politico: “House GOP’s Biden investigations sputter out of the gate” – 4/4/23
- MSNBC: “Republicans realize committee crusaders are off to a ‘rocky start’” – 4/4/23
- Huffington Post: “Rep. James Comer’s update on GOP probe into Bidens’ business dealings is weak sauce” – 4/19/23
- PoliticsUSA: “Top House Republican admits they have nothing on Joe Biden” – 4/19/23
Even Fox News Has Had Enough Of Comer Stringing Them Along
- FOX NEWS HOST: “The witnesses and the whistleblowers are being intimidated by the President’s son’s lawyers. You stand by that and you say you have evidence of that.” REP. JAMES COMER: “It depends on your definition of intimidation.” – Fox News, America Reports, 5/1/23
- FOX NEWS HOST: “You also are claiming that Democrat officials in Congress are bankrolling dark money groups to throw off this probe you said. You said that Democrat-leaning lawyers are pressuring banks that are cooperating with the congressional investigation, but you have no given any examples of that, can you do so right now?” REP. JAMES COMER: “We will in time.” – Fox News, America Reports, 5/1/23
- FOX NEWS’ BILL HEMMER: “Okay, we will see where the next chapter leads. James Comer, thank you for your time. It’s rather incendiary and we’ll see whether or not you’re on to something. Again, five years investigating. Nothing just yet. James Comer, thank you for your time today.” – Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 3/14/23
FACT: COMER IS JUST ANOTHER MAGA CONSPIRACY THEORIST
- Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote, “Comer has alleged that the president’s son is responsible for just about everything…So, to recap, 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.” – Washington Post, Dana Milbank, 5/4/22
- Comer pushed former President Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories about voter fraud in the 2020 election. – Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan Letter, 11/18/20
- Following the January 6th insurrection, Comer made excuses for former President Trump, said he believed Trump was “fit to hold office” again, that he didn’t see direct evidence that Trump encouraged his supporters to breach the Capitol, and that Trump was speaking figuratively. – WLKY News Louisville, 1/14/21
THE TRUTH: AMERICANS WANT REPUBLICANS TO FOCUS ON KITCHEN TABLE ISSUES AND STOP WASTING MONEY ON POLITICAL INVESTIGATIONS
- In April, a Navigator poll found 59 percent of Americans disapproved of the job Republicans were doing in Congress, with half of respondents saying Republicans were focused on the wrong things. – Navigator Research, 4/13/23
- In March, a Congressional Integrity Project/ Public Policy Polling survey found 63 percent of Americans wanted Congress to focus on inflation, health care and other kitchen table issues, while only 29 percent wanted Congress to investigate the Biden administration. – American Independent, 3/16/23
- In February, an NBC News poll found 55 percent of Americans thought Republicans would spend too much time investigating President Biden and not enough time on other priorities. – NBC News, 2/2/23
- In February, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found 56 percent of Americans thought Republican investigations were just about scoring political points. – FiveThirtyEight, 2/21/23
- In January, a CNN poll found that fewer than one-third of Americans believed House Republicans were prioritizing the most important issues facing our country. Nearly half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said House Republican leadership had not displayed the right priorities. – CNN, 1/26/23
- In January, a Navigator poll found three in five Americans disapproved of Republicans’ performance in Congress. – Navigator Research, 1/12/23
- In January, a Pew Research Center survey found 65 percent of Americans were concerned Congressional Republicans would focus too much on investigating the Biden administration. – FiveThirtyEight, 2/21/23
- In December of last year, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll found 51 percent of registered voters agreed House Republican investigations were just about scoring political points and not a serious oversight effort. – FiveThirtyEight, 2/21/23