To: Interested Parties
From: Kyle Herrig, Executive Director, Congressional Integrity Project
Date: September 10, 2024
Re: MAGA House Republicans Plan Another Week Of Political Stunt Hearings On Behalf of Donald Trump
MAGA House Republicans are returning to Congress this week after spending over a month in recess and have decided to go all in on more political stunt hearings. House Republicans have spent their whole time in the majority blatantly ignoring the important priorities of Americans across the country. With only a few weeks left to get things done, MAGA House Republicans are continuing to demonstrate that they only answer to one person – Donald Trump.
MAGA House Republicans continue to go to extreme lengths to do Trump’s bidding, using taxpayer dollars and their official resources and weaponizing our government to act as an arm of the struggling Trump campaign. It’s just the latest in a series of political stunts to hurt Democrats instead of governing and addressing the real issues Americans are facing.
Take a look at what Republicans are prioritizing this week:
1) Three separate hearings on the border, after they torpedoed a bipartisan border bill at the behest of their leader, Trump.
MAGA House Republicans have repeatedly held political stunt hearings on what they called the “Biden border crisis” until President Biden announced he was no longer running for President. Republicans immediately shifted to pushing the blame onto Vice President Harris, even 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.
2) Three separate hearings to push the Big Lie and other election conspiracy theories.
MAGA House Republicans have spent their entire time in the majority pushing Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election being stolen and sowing seeds of doubt about the upcoming 2024 election. Donald Trump’s Big Lie has been debunked over and over again, yet MAGA Republicans have repeatedly given election-denying conspiracy theorists a platform to spread these lies and threaten our democracy.
This week, they are once again trying to spark fear about the non-existent issue of noncitizens voting in federal elections. The fact is that: noncitizens already cannot vote in federal elections. These hearings are just an excuse to fearmonger about election security.
Yesterday, Marjorie Taylor Greene held an unserious, sham press conference she called a “hearing” about the treatment of violent January 6th insurrectionists. The event was just a platform for her and a few of her fellow extreme MAGA Republicans to spread wild conspiracy theories and try to rewrite the events we all watched take place on January 6th and plant the seeds of another insurrection on behalf of Trump if he loses this year.
3) A hearing on crime as an excuse to spout racist dog whistles and attack Democrats.
MAGA House Republicans repeatedly demonstrate that they do not actually care about crime. House Republicans have been calling for defunding federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI, DOJ, and ATF. This would be disastrous and make the American people significantly less safe. And they will be holding this hearing attacking so-called “soft-on-crime” policies in order to help convicted-felon Donald Trump.
4) A hearing designed to politicize and deflect blame for the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal from Donald Trump.
Chairman McCaul waited until two months before the election to release his report. The report contained no new information and – like this hearing – was designed to help Donald Trump avoid accountability for the chaos caused by his administration.
5) This isn’t even all of it.
This isn’t even all of the political stunts MAGA Republicans are planning to do this week. 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. The American people see right through their stunts and that House Republicans only try to help Trump return to the White House.