To: Interested Parties
From: Kyle Herrig, Executive Director, Congressional Integrity Project
Date: August 15, 2024
Re: MAGA House Republicans Pivot Oversight To Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, Using the House of Representatives As An Arm of the Trump Campaign Once Again
MAGA House Republicans have spent their whole time in the majority blatantly ignoring the important priorities of Americans across the country, and instead pursuing political stunts to benefit convicted felon Donald Trump. Now, with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at the top of the ticket, House Republicans are pivoting from their failed impeachment probe into President Biden to targeting Harris and Walz. They have quickly moved to start investigating the Vice President and her running mate despite having no evidence pointing to even a slight impropriety. The MAGA House GOP is pushing baseless investigations into Democrats’ fundraising platform, Harris’ role in border policy, a so-called “shadow government” conspiracy theory, and even Walz’s military career, which spanned over two decades.
MAGA House Republicans have always gone to extreme lengths to do Trump’s bidding and help him and his allies politically. They are using taxpayer dollars and their official resources to do the bidding of a convicted felon, weaponizing our government to act as an arm of the struggling Trump campaign. These steps right out of the MAGA Republican playbook are just the latest political stunt to hurt Democrats instead of governing and addressing the real issues Americans are facing.
MAGA House Republicans Are Quickly Pivoting To Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz As Investigation Targets. After over a year and a half of partisan stunts and evidence-free investigations benefitting the Trump campaign, MAGA House Republicans have made it clear that they continue to be only interested in using the House of Representatives as a political tool. House Republicans have quickly pivoted from their failed impeachment inquiry against President Biden. Recent headlines have described Comer’s lifeless probe into Biden as “a major threat to democracy” that has been “unraveling,” “doomed from the start,” “failed,” “falling apart,” “ending with a whimper,” and finally, “fizzled out.”
And so, despite no shift in recent policy or any new evidence coming to light, House Republicans have quickly moved to start investigating the Vice President and Governor Tim Walz. As the New York Times pointed out, “Harris, however, has been left largely unscathed by the Republican-controlled House. It wasn’t until this week that Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced an investigation into Harris related to immigration at the southern border.” Likewise, the New Republic noted that the “very conveniently timed investigation” is just another “desperate ploy to save Trump.”
- MAGA Oversight Republicans Are Investigating Harris’ Role In Border Policy. Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) has already begun pursuing an investigation into Vice President Harris’ role in border policy, announcing the new probe during a Fox News interview by declaring: “[W]e want to know exactly what Kamala Harris did.” After the interview, Comer posted on X, “VP Harris must be held accountable for her role.”
Of course, Harris was never assigned to oversee border security, as numerous fact-checkers have pointed out. With border encounters down 55 percent, migrant apprehensions continuing to decline, and the recent arrest of two top drug cartel leaders, it is clear that the investigation is not based in reality; Comer and House Republicans are just following orders from the Trump campaign.
- Comer Is Investigating A So-Called “Shadow Government Operation.” In addition to the border probe, James Comer has also started expanding his conspiratorial investigation into the Biden-Harris administration’s day-to-day operations, implying that Harris has supposedly been involved in a “shadow government” scheme covering up the President’s health. Comer asked reporters, “Was there a shadow government operation? I don’t think there’s any question whether or not Joe Biden was able to be running the day-to-day operations. He was not. Now, who was making the decisions? Who was calling the shots?” He also asked, “Was Kamala in charge? Who was in charge?” This is nothing new – House Republicans have spent months trying to smear President Biden by calling his mental fitness into question. They voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt without a single shred of evidence over baseless allegations about the President’s fitness, and MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson even called on him to resign last month. This latest line of inquiry is part of the same political stunt; they are only trying to widen the scope and tack on Vice President Harris to score political points.
- MAGA House Republicans Are Investigating Governor Tim Walz’s Military Service. After Harris announced she would be running alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the GOP chair of the House Armed Services’ Military Personnel subcommittee Jim Banks (R-OH) quickly moved to send a letter to the Defense Secretary, demanding information about Walz’s military career, which spanned over two decades, from the Pentagon: “I think it’s important that the public have the whole truth about Tim Walz’s military service.” By using their investigatory authority to investigate a political opponent and question the valor of a veteran who spent nearly half of his life in the National Guard, House Republicans are exposing themselves yet again as an arm of the Trump campaign pushing politically motivated games.
- MAGA Republicans Are Investigating Democratic Fundraising After A Record-Breaking Surge. In addition to directly investigating Vice President Harris, MAGA House Republicans are also demanding an investigation of Democrats’ fundraising platform, ActBlue, after Harris notched record fundraising sums in the wake of her campaign launch.
MAGA House Republicans Launched A Barrage of Resolutions Targeting Vice President Harris. In addition to investigations targeting the Vice President and her running mate, House Republicans are pushing out a slate of bogus resolutions attacking Harris. The very same week Harris launched her Presidential campaign, MAGA Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) also introduced bogus articles of impeachment against Vice President Harris, charging her with high crimes and misdemeanors without pointing to a single impeachable offense or offering up any evidence of wrongdoing. House Republicans also introduced multiple resolutions baselessly condemning and criticizing the Vice President. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) introduced a resolution “strongly condemning” Kamala Harris over the border and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced a resolution condemning the Vice President over immigration policy.
MAGA Republicans couldn’t be more transparent about using taxpayer resources to help re-elect Donald Trump — and it reeks of desperation. These latest political stunts expose MAGA House Republicans once again for weaponizing our government to bail out the Trump campaign and hurt Democrats instead of actually governing. Trump is flailing, unhinged, and cratering in the polls; he is being out-raised, out-spent, and out-hustled. James Comer and his other Trump cultist allies are desperate to save his flagging campaign, lest they go down with the ship.