As Republicans try to maintain their charade that they are concerned about crime – holding multiple hearings on crime in Washington, D.C. – MAGA Republicans continue to call for defunding the police. House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) has suggested repeatedly in the last two weeks that he intends to defund the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies, openly calling to “hold their budget hostage” and to target “specific employees” and for punitive measures.
August 2022: Comer Embraced Marjorie Taylor Greene, Who Was Selling ‘Defund The FBI’ Shirts On Her Website, Onto The House Oversight Committee. Long before Republicans took control of the House, James Comer embraced far-right politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has long opposed top federal law enforcement agencies and was selling t-shirts and hats labeled “defund the FBI” and “proud Christian nationalist” on her online store as early as August 2022—despite opposing ‘defund the police’ movements in 2021—in the midst of a classified documents investigation into former president Trump.
May 22, 2023: Comer Promised To Hold The FBI’s Budget “Hostage.” “Jesse Watters: But, congressman, I don’t think the FBI respects you. James Comer: They don’t respect anyone in Congress. They’ve been able to get away with this for a long time. The media continues to turn a blind eye. The Senate Republicans continue to fund the FBI. So, why would you change your business model when you’re getting everything you want? What we’re going to have to do in this House is demand that the senators get our backs, like they’re doing as we speak with these debt ceiling negotiations, and hold their budget hostage until they get new leadership at the FBI or they produce the documents that we want. It’s not just this Form 1023. We also want to know what classified documents Joe Biden had in his possession, because that’s an important part of our investigation.” [“Jesse Watters Primetime,” Fox News, 5/22/23; VIDEO]
May 22, 2023: Comer On Federal Law Enforcement: “Cut Their Budgets And These Positions To The Bone.” “James Comer: We’re going to have to hold these agencies accountable. That’s the only way to rein them in,with the Democrats controlling the White House, with the media turning a blind eye and not providing any type of investigative reporting or checks and balances, or even accurate reporting on the corruption and the wrongdoing. We’re going to have to cut their budgets and these positions to the bone. We have tools in our new rules package to do that with the Holman rule. And the only way… We can do it all day long. People are talking about impeach, impeach. Well, the Senate won’t convict. The one thing that the Senate can do, is get our backs and help us cut the FBI positions, halt their expansion, and do whatever we can with the power of the purse until they resign, and we get new, competent leadership in these government agencies.” [The Glenn Beck Program, 5/22/23; AUDIO]
- Comer Called For Mass Firings And “Completely New Faces” At The FBI. “James Comer: I think the American people are starting to see there is a two tier system of justice, and they want reform. And the only way that’s going to happen is to get rid of the people at the top, and not just the Attorney General, and not just the FBI director, but the next level of leadership, too. We need completely new faces in our intelligence committee in the Department of Justice.” [The Glenn Beck Program, 5/22/23; AUDIO]
May 17, 2023: Comer On Federal Law Enforcement: “I Don’t Want To Give Them Anything. I Want To Cut.” “Joe Pags: The House of Representatives has to defund $4 billion for a new facility for the FBI. How do you reward an FBI that clearly is broken? James Comer: Yeah, that’s part of what the negotiations were the last time there was a spending bill over the IRS. I don’t want to give them anything. I want to cut. I mean, not the IRS, but the FBI.” [Joe Pags Show, 5/17/23; VIDEO]
May 17, 2023: Comer Said He Would Use The Holman Rule To Target “Specific Employees” Of The FBI And “Cut Their Salaries Down To Nothing.” “James Comer: Look, the FBI is out of control. Most of the FBI agents and most of the people that work in the FBI are tremendous public servants, but we have the upper management that is rotten to the core, and they continue to behave badly, but yet, no one’s held accountable. So we’re gonna have to use what’s called the Holman Rule to go in and identify those specific employees. If the FBI will not get rid of those people, then we’re going to have to cut their salaries down to nothing to get rid of them. There are tools we can use that have never been used before, but we’re gonna have to do it.” [Joe Pags Show, 5/17/23; VIDEO]
May 16, 2023: Comer Called For Eliminating Positions And Cutting The Budget For Federal Law Enforcement Agencies. “James Comer: Once we negotiate this debt ceiling, we’re gonna have to have those senators continue to get our backs because we’ve got to hold them accountable by cutting their budgets, by eliminating their positions, by demanding that there be new leadership at the IRS, at the DOJ, at the FBI, and every other out of control deep state bureaucracy in this tale.” [“Kudlow,” Fox Business, 5/16/23; VIDEO]