The House Oversight Committee’s new chair is bullshitting about the Biden administration supposedly refusing to allow Border Patrol officials from four different sectors to testify before the committee. James Comer, the same dude lately obsessed with pictures of Hunter Biden’s genitalia, claimed in a Jan. 27 letter that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is “refusing to permit” officials to appear before members at a hearing slated for early next month.
But CNN obtained a letter from DHS dated just one day before showing a situation quite different from what Comer described. In simple words, he’s a liar.
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The Jan. 26 letter representing the federal government, penned by the DHS acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs, makes Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz available for in-person testimony. The four officials sought by House Republicans would also be available to speak at a members-level briefing. Because the department said it has “significant operational concerns” about having to quickly pull the officials “from some of our nation’s busiest sectors,” it’s suggesting remote testimony when it comes to them.
The department notably said that it’s not aware of ever having provided a number of officials “simultaneously who were from any single subcomponent.”
So Republicans are getting the exact officials they asked for, and then even more, in the form of testimony from Ortiz, who does not appear to have been included in Comer’s initial ask and whom the department said is knowledgable of the entirety of the agency’s operations, not just individual sectors. Ortiz, the department said, “oversees the full scope of USBP’s operations along our nation’s borders, which include nearly 2,000 miles with Mexico, more than 5,000 miles with Canada, hundreds of coastal miles, and our territories in the Caribbean.” The agency stresses Ortiz has more than 30 years with the agency.
Republicans should be satisfied with the arrangement, but Comer’s letter indicates he’s fuming because the four sector officials won’t be giving “live testimony.” That’s all it really comes down to, folks. Comer isn’t at all interested in a comprehensive hearing about real issues at our southern border. (Notice Republicans hardly ever make a fuss about the much-longer Canadian border.) He wants a chance to spread gross lies and misconceptions about immigrants, to use the hearings as some basis to impeach Mayorkas, but above all to create a public spectacle—and he’s pissed that the department isn’t playing along with his little games. Good.
“We understand the Committee’s need for timely information and are committed to continuing discussions on this topic,” the DHS official said. “The Department will continue to steadfastly engage on issues concerning the southwest border, and we welcome the opportunity to explore concrete solutions. We look forward to engaging further on other ways we can collaborate and support the Committee’s work.”
As previously noted, House Republicans are seeking to use these kinds of hearings to build a flimsy foundation for an impeachment case against Mayorkas. But early indications are that the impeachment effort is already off the rails. Speaker-for-Now Kevin McCarthy can only lose a couple votes, and at least three members of the GOP caucus are at the moment either no, or iffy.
Republicans also want to waste Mayorkas’ time as DHS warned that domestic terrorism remains a huge threat to our nation. It was just a couple weeks ago that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told a gala brimming with white nationalists that if she’d lead the insurrection, it would’ve been successful. House Republicans have since placed Greene back onto committees (including Comer’s) after stripping her of her assignments over social media comments endorsing the assassination of Democratic officials. No wonder Republicans will do anything to avoid talking about domestic terrorism.
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