Kelley Paul, wife of Sen. Rand Paul, speaks with Rep. James Comer before the start of the program at the Fancy Farm Picnic at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Fancy Farm, Ky., on Aug. 6, 2022.
Timothy D. Easley/AP Photo
“I’m not going to be chasing some of these right-wing blogs and some of their conspiracy theories,” Comer told POLITICO in an hour-long interview conducted in a rented RV trailer that his campaign had parked at the picnic. “We’ll look into anything, but we’re not going to declare a probe or an investigation unless we have proof.”
“Anything” includes conducting any necessary oversight of a Republican administration that may take power in 2024, he said. Comer describes himself as committed to ensuring both parties take his investigations seriously, a common if rarely attainable goal in the Capitol. But he’s preparing in the hopes he can make a bipartisan impact, deliberately studying how chairs on both sides of the aisle effectively led the panel in the past and looking ahead by building his relationships with various agencies’ inspectors general, whom he said will be “a very important part of our investigations.”
And though Comer has said Hunter Biden would likely get subpoenaed in the event of a declined invitation to the committee next year, he doesn’t want to appear trigger-happy with issuing subpoenas, either.
“This isn’t a dog-and-pony show. This isn’t a committee where everybody’s gonna scream and be outraged and try to make the witnesses look like fools,” he said, before nodding at House Democrats’ past probes of the Trump campaign and Russian election interference. “Unlike Adam Schiff, we’re gonna have something concrete, substantive on Hunter Biden or I’m not going to talk about Hunter Biden.”
That vision may not align with some of his other, more rhetorically pugnacious committee members, which could put them on a collision course next year.
Oversight will exert a strong political pull if the GOP takes the House, inspiring increased interest among GOP members who might relish the opportunity to go viral while berating Biden officials from the committee dais. Firebrands like Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have expressed interest in joining the panel to Comer and GOP leadership, the Kentuckian confirmed. And half of the panel’s current Republicans are part of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, where many members have their own incendiary reputations.
Rep. Pete Sessions speaks during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on gun violence on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 2022.