If Republicans take management of the Home within the subsequent Congress, the Home Oversight Committee's prime precedence might be investigating Hunter Biden, the president's son. That is in keeping with Kentucky Congressman James Comer, the highest Republican on the committee, who spoke with CBS Information chief Washington correspondent Main Garrett for this week's "The Takeout" podcast.
"I imagine that his son is that corrupt," Comer stated.
He accused Hunter Biden of profiting off his final title and Joe Biden of defending his son's curiosity.
"Any father would in all probability try this," he stated. "However the issue is Hunter Biden is a nationwide safety menace."
President Biden has stated that he has had no involvement in his son's enterprise offers. Hunter Biden's enterprise ties are being scrutinized by the Justice Division.
Garrett requested whether or not the committee has sufficient proof to hyperlink Hunter Biden and his father and whether or not it might quantity to an impeachment continuing towards the president.
"I have not seen that but," Comer stated.
Comer, who expects to turn into chairman of the committee in a Republican-controlled chamber, is worried the Justice Division might file an indictment towards Hunter Biden after the midterms, inadvertently serving to the president's son by stymying the investigation.
"That indictment then would make it laborious for our subpoena to be efficient with Hunter," Comer stated, including that a potential appointment of a particular counsel to Hunter's case would make it "not possible" to get Hunter to testify in entrance of a congressional investigative committee.
Who else might obtain a subpoena if and when Comer takes the chairman's gavel? Infectious illness skilled Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Fauci has maintained that COVID-19 probably resulted from a "pure incidence," versus a lab leak in Wuhan, China, telling a Senate committee this week that the virus probably jumped from "an animal host, maybe via an middleman host, right into a human species, which then unfold all through the human inhabitants."
Comer doesn't imagine that evaluation and suggests the federal government is not doing sufficient to uncover the illness's origins.
"We aren't going to let up on that," Comer advised Garrett. "I feel the American individuals need to know the reality about COVID 19. They need to have a authorities attempt to really discover the reality about the place the COVID 19 originated from."
On a earlier episode of "The Takeout," Dr. Fauci stated he would welcomes congressional scrutiny of his work and has nothing to cover.
Comer additionally needs to analyze the dealing with of migrant exercise on the U.S.-Mexico border. Regardless that Border Patrol brokers alongside the southern border recorded 222,000 apprehensions in Could — an all-time month-to-month excessive — he claims that the administration's insurance policies are inviting "much more individuals" to come back.
Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, he stated, could be a primary goal for impeachment.
"He is on the prime of the checklist as a result of he isn't doing his job on the border. It is getting worse each day."
Comer has represented his Kentucky district in Congress since 2017 and repeatedly flies dwelling with Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell.
Comer stated McConnell and President Trump have by no means been "fond" of each other and the connection has solely deteriorated since Trump misplaced his 2020 reelection.
"I feel one of many issues that Trump by no means appreciated about McConnell is the truth that on the finish of the day, he tried to get to 60 (votes within the Senate). And in the event you get to 60, you are going to must get a couple of Democrats alongside the way in which."
A "round firing squad would not appear to do a lot good on your aspect," Comer lamented.
Highlights from this week's episode:
- Whether or not there might be one other mass capturing in America: "Nicely, I hope that there is by no means one other mass capturing, however I imagine that you've evil individuals in America. And I do know each time there is a mass capturing, there are lots of people. They anticipate Congress to do one thing. And on the finish of the day, you can't legislate towards evil. So sadly, there are in all probability going to be extra shootings in America. However I imagine we have to do all the pieces in our means in Congress to attempt to make our colleges tougher, make them extra fortified to the place the shootings do not occur in a college. We must always not have a college the place a shooter can bodily stroll in off the road."
- Arming academics in colleges: "I'm comfy with academics being armed. Now, my mom was a public college trainer. She wouldn't have wished to have been armed, however she would have been positive with different academics that had been expert in in capturing, that may have voluntarily gone to take coaching courses. She would have been positive with that. She I feel in the event you take a look at what Kentucky's tried to do, we are saying giving the academics the selection. If you wish to be armed and also you're keen to take courses to coach, then you definitely may be armed within the college. However in the event you're a trainer who's afraid of weapons, don't desire any a part of gun, then then you definitely should not be pressured to have weapons. In order that's that is what I help."
- Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy's management: "You already know, he, it is powerful being the chief. It is, sadly, it is a partisan enterprise that we're in. If you happen to're the chief of your convention, whether or not you are Pelosi or Kevin McCarthy or Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer, it is a partisan enterprise that you simply're in. So, there are lots of people which can be, that despise bipartisan politics. And sadly, that is that is the place we're."
Government producer: Arden Farhi
Producers: Jamie Benson, Jacob Rosen, Sara Cook dinner and Eleanor Watson
CBSN Manufacturing: Eric Soussanin
Present electronic mail: TakeoutPodcast@cbsnews.com
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