GOP Rep. James Comer held a House Accountability and Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday titled, “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” The laughably biased display is the latest Republican attempt to bash President Joe Biden, tarnish Vice President Kamala Harris’ record, and bolster Donald Trump's flailing presidential campaign.
Not unlike the committee’s abject failure to find a single shred of evidence to impeach Biden, this new attempt did not go the Republican Party’s way. Instead of creating angry and aggrieved sound bites for MAGA minions to salivate over, the hearing was mostly a boring stream of conservative lies.
Enter Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who used his time to detail the Biden administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people. Connolly enlisted Skye Perryman, CEO of public policy organization Democracy Forward and the only witness the Democrats were allowed to call during the hearing, as his willing accomplice in this brief history lesson.
He began by countering the GOP claims that the Biden administration’s environmental regulations preventing energy industries from drilling for oil willy-nilly are “impeding energy production.”
Not only are Trump and Republicans lying about how superior they are when it comes to American energy production, they are lying about the Biden administration’s historic success in reaching new levels of energy independence.
Connolly moved on from there, asking Perryman about the Trump administration’s attempts to pass an infrastructure bill.
Connolly: Did they ever pass an infrastructure bill?Perryman: They did not.
Connolly: Did President Biden pass an infrastructure bill?
Perryman: He did.
Connolly: Is it also the largest infrastructure bill in American history?
Perryman: The Biden-Harris infrastructure bill is the largest in American history.
Connolly: And pretty comprehensive, covers lots of different kinds of infrastructure. Is that correct?
Perryman: Many infrastructure and lots of investment.
The Biden administration did indeed pass an infrastructure bill with nearly zero support from the Republican Party.
Connolly then detailed the Trump administration's failures in Afghanistan, including the rushed withdrawal timeline that Republicans now decry and blame on Biden. Trump tried to make his already terrible plan catastrophic by ordering a rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan after he lost the election in 2020. Thankfully, senior military staff did not follow through.
The GOP and Trump have also blamed Biden for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. So Connolly walked down memory lane to recall why, unlike Biden, Trump was first impeached in 2019. We all remember how Trump tried to extort Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election by withholding weapons for the country’s defense.
“Would it be fair to say that that development, that threat and that withholding of weapons, might be construed—if you were Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin—as a sign of weakness on the part of Ukraine and a sign that maybe the United States wasn't going to be there should something bad happen between Russia and Ukraine?” Connolly asked.
“It seems plausible,” Perryman agreed.
Finally, in light of the right wing’s frequent fearmongering over nuclear war and Iran, Connolly gave everyone watching the hearing a quick history lesson.
Connolly: Iran and nuclear weapons: Was there not an agreement that the United States actually led that involved Russia and China, Europe and Iran, to limit nuclear weapon production in Iran?Perryman: There was a historic agreement.
Connolly: And was it working?
Perryman: Yes.
Connolly: In all respects?
Perryman: I believe so.
Connolly: Inspected by IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency] and the Trump administration, and certified by both.
Perryman: Yes.
Connolly: Is that correct? And what happened to that treaty?
Perryman: President Trump pulled out.
Connolly: And has Iran been less active in producing nuclear weapons, or more?
Perryman: Iran is now a greater threat because of that failure.
Connolly: So much for efficacy. Just thought I'd revisit that revisionist history.
Comer seems to have found a novel way to waste taxpayer money: using his position as chairman of the Accountability and Oversight Committee to nakedly campaign against the Biden-Harris administration and prop up Trump’s dogged quest to return to the White House.
If Thursday’s display was any indication, this latest effort will be about as effective as Comer’s last set of bogus hearings.