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If you steered clear of far-right social media accounts over the weekend, you might not know about fake developments that sparked considerable hysteria in Republican circles. Devon Archer, a former Hunter Biden business associate, was poised to testify before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee, and Republicans were convinced that the Justice Department was trying to prevent that from happening as part of a nefarious partisan plot.
The claims were quickly and easily discredited, but for a short while, prominent GOP voices were apoplectic about this. Naturally, folks like Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia helped lead the charge, but they weren't alone.
Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York claimed that federal prosecutors might themselves be criminals, engaging in “witness intimidation” and “obstruction of justice,” while Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina suggested Congress might need to respond to this entirely bogus controversy by defunding federal law enforcement and impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Making matters worse, the circus also included House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, all of whom pretended the imagined outrage was real. It was not.
This was, by any fair measure, utterly bonkers. It was also soon rendered moot when the scheduled congressional hearing happened as scheduled, and it produced nothing that advanced the GOP’s crusade against President Joe Biden. The New York Times reported that Archer told lawmakers that Biden, before becoming president, occasionally had casual interactions with his son’s business associates, but that’s all he did.
[I]n nearly five hours of closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee, Devon Archer, the former partner, asserted that the elder Mr. Biden was not party to any of his son’s business deals and that Hunter Biden had tried to sell the illusion that he was providing access to his powerful father when he was not, according to Democrats on the panel.
Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman of New York issued a brief statement online, explaining that he was the only member of the Oversight panel who stayed for the entire multi-hour hearing. He came away with two simple observations: According to the Republicans’ own witness, Joe Biden never talked business with his son or his son’s associates, and there was no bribe.
Goldman added, “This investigation has uncovered ZERO evidence connected to President Biden. In fact, the evidence is clear that President Biden had nothing to do with Hunter’s businesses.”
The New York Democrat wasn’t the only relevant voice: Far-right Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona conceded that Archer didn’t help bolster the core attack Republicans have tried to make against the president.
For good measure, it’s also important to emphasize that Democrats want the public to have access to the full transcript of yesterday’s hearing — which is generally a sign that the discussion was not a great success for Republican conspiracy theorists.
All of this, of course, comes on the heels of a related misstep from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer last month, which follows a series of similar setbacks.
Indeed, as regular readers might recall, it was in May when Comer scheduled a highly anticipated press conference, at which the Kentucky Republican was supposed to unveil devastating information about Biden and the Democrat’s alleged corruption. It would be “judgment day” for the president, the House Oversight Committee chairman said, as GOP lawmakers unveiled evidence of a scandal that would make “Watergate look like jaywalking.”
A humiliating dud soon followed. After months of desperate searching and thorough investigating, Comer conceded that he still didn’t have any actual evidence against the incumbent president.
As The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson explained in a recent column, Comer’s presentation proved to be little more than a “shameless, empty exercise in rumor and innuendo.” Even Fox News was unimpressed with the Republican’s pitch.
Common sense suggested that the Oversight Committee chairman would take a step back, lick his wounds, wait for the embarrassment to subside, and reassess whether this pointless crusade was still worth the effort. Instead, Comer kept going, scheduling more hearings, and racking up more losses.
Revisiting a point from several months ago, when it comes to members chairing the House Oversight Committee, the Republican Party hasn’t always sent its best. Before this year, the most recent GOP chairman was South Carolina’s Trey Gowdy, who’s best known for leading a ridiculous investigation into Benghazi conspiracy theories. He was proceeded by Utah’s Jason Chaffetz, who didn’t realize that charts have y axes.
Also in recent memory, California’s Darrell Issa was a relentlessly partisan GOP chairman of the Oversight Committee, following an even more ridiculous tenure from Indiana’s Dan Burton, best known for shooting melons in his backyard in pursuit of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories.
Now, it’s Comer’s turn — and the Kentucky Republican has taken his place in an unfortunate GOP club.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.