James Comer is once again fundraising off his baseless impeachment attempt of President Biden, sending out a plea for donations full of debunked conspiracy theories. Comer and his fellow MAGA Republicans have spent over a year relentlessly investigating President Biden and have not found a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. Despite this, they are plowing ahead with their desperate stunt, putting their sycophantic allegiance to Donald Trump over addressing the real issues that matter to Americans like the cost of living and health care. And it is not just his campaign coffers that he is trying to fill: Recent reporting revealed that James Comer was in talks with publishers about a potential book deal that could line his own pockets. Comer and House Republicans need to stop playing games and get to the work they were elected to do.
BACKGROUND: This Isn’t The First Time Comer Has Been Caught Fundraising Off Impeachment Stunts.
- The Washington Post (Opinion): James Comer Makes His Final Anti-Biden Push … To Prospective Donors. “There’s a certain form that modern fundraising emails take, distilled presentations of the on-the-edge-of-collapse vibe that campaigns learned long ago were useful for getting people to hand over credit card numbers. Comer’s email is no exception, arguing in broad strokes that he’s fighting the good fight against nefarious foes and suffering damage that can only be treated with the soothing balm of cash. […] This, then, is how Comer’s crusade ends. Not with a bang of a gavel as a raucous House throws Biden out on his ear but with a whimpering request that Republicans contribute $50 to his reelection — and maybe consider making it a recurring donation? If there is a pantheon to which this endeavor might be added, it’s one celebrating those who overpromise and underdeliver.” [The Washington Post (Opinion), 3/26/24]
- Newsweek: James Comer Mocked After Begging For Cash. “On December 13, the House of Representatives voted to launch the inquiry into the president by 221 votes to 212, following allegations from Republicans that they had evidence of the president’s knowledge of and role in his family members’ domestic and foreign business dealings while he served as vice president under Barack Obama. […] Amid this, in an email sent to supporters, which Newsweek has not seen in full, Comer said his fundraising efforts had ‘hit a brick wall.’ The email said: ‘We’ve hit a major problem. Our January fundraising has hit a brick wall.’” [Newsweek, 2/2/24]
- McClatchy: As He Targeted Joe Biden, Comer Raised $1.5 Million From Contributors, New Data Shows. “Rep. James Comer had the best fundraising quarter of his congressional career during the final months of 2023, at the same time he was ramping up his case to impeach President Joe Biden. The Kentucky Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee banked $1.5 million between October and Dec. 31, 2023, according to his Federal Election Commission report, which was due Wednesday night. […] The GOP-led House voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry of Biden in mid-December, though Comer has yet to produce any concrete evidence the president did anything wrong. Nonetheless, during this period, Comer has been a ubiquitous presence on such prominent conservative television networks as Fox News and Newsmax.” [McClatchy DC Bureau, 2/1/24]
- The Daily Beast: James Comer Fundraises Off Calling Colleague a ‘Smurf’. “Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has sought to fundraise off his spat with Rep. Jared Moskowitz in which Comer called the Florida Democrat a ‘smurf.’ Comer on Friday sent a series of texts and emails with the subject line, ‘I did call Democrat Congressman Jared Moskowitz a smurf,’ adding that ‘I will not be apologizing for it.’ Moskowitz had brought up a Daily Beast report that showed Comer paid his brother $200,000 and also allegedly engaged in some questionable land swaps with him. Comer faces an ethics complaint for the comment.” [The Daily Beast, 11/17/23]
- The Washington Post (Opinion): The Republican Bait-And-Bait Approach To Investigating Biden. “I received a pitch Monday evening encouraging me to contribute to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). ‘40 FBI Informants. In the Biden Family. For 15 years,’ the message read. ‘It’s Chairman Comer and you need to read this’: — followed by a link to a page exploring the theme. A fundraising page, hosted by the site WinRed. If you’ve visited one of these pages in the past, you are familiar with the aesthetic: a large photo of the candidate or beneficiary of the fundraising effort, with a thin column of text meant to engage you before you make your commitment. […] And so on — Comer presents himself as a warrior for the truth, standing up to the media and the left-wing hordes, etc. Then the money ask appears.” [The Washington Post (Opinion), 10/31/23]
- NBC News: Comer’s Fundraising Has Skyrocketed During High-Profile Role Criticizing Biden. “It’s been a consequential eight months for Comer, who took over as committee chairman after Republicans flipped the House and has been using that power to bludgeon Biden, accusing him of being corrupt. And Comer’s fundraising has reflected that newfound prominence. The Kentucky Republican has raised $1 million so far the first six months of 2023, including $400,000 in unitemized contributions (money raised from people who gave less than $200). He’s operating on a completely different scale than just a few years ago. Comer raised only $15,000 from small-dollar donors over the entire two-year period from 2021 through 2022. And at this point on the calendar last election cycle, through the second quarter of 2021, he had raised just $5,050 from those small contributors.” [NBC News, 8/31/23]
- MSNBC (Opinion): Caught Pushing Bogus Claims, GOP’s Comer Seeks Rewards From Donors. “Perhaps a brief timeline of events might help clarify matters. 1. Comer spends months assuring the public that he’d present devastating evidence of Biden corruption. He fails spectacularly at every step. […] Comer’s political operation seeks financial rewards from his supporters anyway, pretending the information that was devastating for the GOP was actually ‘smoking gun evidence’ that incriminated Joe Biden, despite reality. These are not the actions of a powerful public official acting in good faith.” [MSNBC (Opinion), 8/4/23]