To: Interested Parties
From: Kyle Herrig, Executive Director, Congressional Integrity Project
Date: September 17, 2024
Re: Another Week Of Desperate Political Stunts by MAGA House Republicans on Behalf of Donald Trump
Since returning after a month-plus vacation, MAGA House Republicans have dedicated all of their time to hosting political stunt hearings rather than funding the government or making progress on the important priorities of Americans across the country like lowering costs. Last week’s hearings were filled with misinformation and conspiracy theories about the border and sowing doubt in our elections. MAGA Republicans deflected blame for the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal from Donald Trump and spouted racist dog whistles. This week, they are up to the same old shenanigans with 6 hearings that have no goal besides helping Donald Trump’s campaign.
This week’s Congressional priorities are two days full of hearings attacking the Biden-Harris administration:
- Two Homeland Security Committee hearings on the border, after they torpedoed a bipartisan border bill by request of Donald Trump.
MAGA House Republicans repeatedly held political stunt hearings on what they called the “Biden border crisis” until President Biden announced he was no longer running for President. Last week, they hosted three more hearings on the border to shift the blame onto Vice President Harris, falsely dubbing her the “border czar.” While they have used these hearings as an outlet to lob political attacks at President Biden and Vice President Harris, they have failed to achieve any results for the American people. When the opportunity came to pass a bipartisan border security deal that would have actually helped the country, they dutifully spiked the bill because Donald Trump told them to.
- James Comer’s House Oversight Committee will host a hearing on the Biden-Harris administration’s so-called “Policy Failures” – no word on whether a hearing on his own failures will be forthcoming.
It is bold of MAGA House Republicans to speak about “failures” since they haven’t been able to pass a single piece of legislation that actually matters to the American people. As they themselves have said, MAGA House Republicans “have nothing to go out there and campaign on,” calling it “embarrassing,” and saying “I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing – one! – that I can go campaign on and say we did.” One of the other big failures during the Biden-Harris administration is House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer himself who has spent the past year and a half investigating President Biden and has failed to find a single shred of evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever.
- Two hearings to attack the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to address climate change, lower energy prices, and create energy jobs.
Rather than working to address rising energy costs or rapidly worsening climate change, MAGA House Republicans are hosting a hearing to shut down energy and climate regulations, a Project 2025 priority. The Education and Workforce subcommittee hearing will also provide a platform for a top Heritage Foundation official. The Heritage Foundation wrote the radical Project 2025 policy agenda, which is supported by Donald Trump and JD Vance and threatens our freedoms and the rule of law. Project 2025 directly calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, setting back the American clean energy economy and shipping that manufacturing overseas.
- These won’t be the only stunts by House Republicans this week.
These won’t even be all of the political stunts MAGA House Republicans will do this week, as Republicans are growing more and more desperate. It’s clear: MAGA House Republicans are committed to using their positions to help Donald Trump above all else – no matter the cost to their constituents and the country.
Next up on the MAGA agenda: investigating ABC because Donald Trump thinks the network “rigged” his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, when in reality even his own allies were embarrassed by his conspiracy theory-filled performance.