James Comer Concedes It’d Be Politically Unsustainable for Him to Investigate Jared Kushner’s Business Dealings
House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) sat for over six hours for a recent New York Times profile and offered extensive insight into how he plans to conduct investigations.
Comer, who is a regular guest on Fox News and other right-of-center media outlets, has made headlines in recent weeks claiming that his committee’s probe is getting closer and closer to proving “influence peddling” between Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, and foreign governments – although Comer has yet to show concrete evidence.
Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Luke Broadwater noted that Comer has become a high-profile and “aggressive promoter of sinister-sounding claims about the president and his family.”
During an interview, however, the reporters asked Comer if he was willing to apply the same kind of scrutiny he gives Hunter Biden to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The Times profile detailed the exchange:
While he did not rule out looking at Mr. Kushner’s business dealings at some point, when a reporter suggested it might be politically unsustainable for him to investigate Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, he took a long pause, then replied: “I don’t disagree with what you said.”
The quote and others in the profile, published Tuesday, raised eyebrows among Comer’s critics, with the Democratic National Committee releasing a statement blasting the Kentucky Republican.
“James Comer this morning is raising new questions about his record of using far-right conspiracy theories to launch politically motivated attacks on President Biden, while also raising serious concerns about his own credibility,” wrote the DNC in a press release.
Swan and Broadwater also offered some flattering descriptions of Comer:
Mr. Comer, who still clings to his reputation for bipartisanship — photographs of him and Mr. Biden are prominently displayed in his office — is the temperamental opposite to his investigative counterpart, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Mr. Jordan is a confrontational and fast-talking ideologue who chairs the Judiciary Committee, while Mr. Comer speaks in a Southern drawl, deploys a practiced self-deprecation and tends toward the “just-asking-questions” mode.
Comer has previously spoken on the topic of investigating Kushner, who is under scrutiny for receiving a $2 billion investment in his private equity firm from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund after leaving his official position in the White House.
Comer was asked about Kushner’s close ties with the Saudis during his time in the Trump administration and the eye-popping investment while on ABC’s This Week in February.
“I don’t disagree with the Democrats and their criticism of the previous administration. We have a problem here that needs a legislative solution. That’s why this Biden investigation is so important. There’s a legislative solution to this, and it can be bipartisan,” Comer said, adding:
The Democrats complained about Kushner’s foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the entire Biden family’s foreign business dealings. We need to know what is allowable and what isn’t allowable. We need to have strict ethics laws. And we need to significantly increase the disclosure laws in America. So I think this investigation is going to be very important to fix a problem before it gets out of hand.
