House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) responded to Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s many lies with an epic letter.
Rep. Raskin wrote to Comer in a letter provided to PoliticusUSA:
As you know, throughout this year, I have sent you 12 different letters registering my objection to your continuing distortion of key facts in the Majority’s investigation of President Biden, including false statements about the process, misleading descriptions of witness testimony, and completely deceptive statements to the American people about the findings in the Committee’s Biden family probe. I have scrupulously documented the facts debunking this giant pile of misinformation, but you have so far remained completely silent about responding to my specific refutations of your false claims and about your willingness to clarify the public record. You have not seen fit to reply to even one of my letters. So, imagine my complete surprise in receiving your October 26th letter expressing an interest in the facts!
Look, I know that our first (and almost certainly final) impeachment hearing was a devastating disappointment when your star witnesses defected from their assigned missions, with one testifying he did “not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment” against President Biden and another stating that he had no basis to “even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing.” Your witnesses, like our own, were clearly familiar with the thick investigative record you have assembled, which, to date, comprises: more than 14,000 pages of bank records already subpoenaed and received by the Committee, over 2,000 pages of suspicious activity reports (SARs) made available by the Department of the Treasury, many hours of witness testimony from two of Hunter Biden’s business partners and three U.S. Attorneys, as well as seven federal agents assigned to investigate Hunter Biden, and hundreds of pages of cherry-picked documents released by the Committee on Ways and Means. But this giant record that you have selectively compiled failed to persuade your own witnesses of any criminal wrongdoing by the President, much less an impeachable offense.
This must be frustrating indeed.
But please, Mr. Chairman, I ask you not to take your frustrations out on me—it wasn’t my fault. Those were your witnesses.
You invited them.
Not me.
We just questioned them.
Since that hearing, you claimed to have uncovered yet more “bombshell” evidence that
again proved to be a resounding dud.
For example, last week you eagerly hyped the shocking revelation that, when he was a private citizen, Joe Biden committed the apparently unforgivable sin of lending his own brother James $200,000 which James repaid 48 days later.
Rep. Raskin debunked Comer’s many lies over nine pages of his letter. Since Chair Comer hasn’t responded to any of Ranking Member Raskin’s previous 12 letters, Raskin helpfully attached them all to his thirteenth letter. The Biden investigation is a complete farce.
House Republicans have abused their power and embarrassed the House of Representatives.
Republicans have spent all of 2023 on the Biden investigation, and they have come up with nothing. Yet, Rep. Comer expresses frustration that no media outside the conservative media bubble will cover his investigation.
The fake Biden impeachment hearing was so humiliating that Republicans walked out on it to try to avoid being tainted by it.
The good news for the nation is that if Democrats win back the House majority in 2024, real oversight will return when Jamie Raskin becomes the Oversight Committee Chairman in January 2025.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association