James Comer Suspects Tim Walz Is a Secret Communist
Plus: Only one candidate is fiscally conservative.
For a brief period this summer, things were trending in a decent direction for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). The cessation of interest in the impeachment of President Joe Biden had allowed the Kentucky Republican to turn the page on a chairmanship that had, to that point, been defined by constant infighting, embarrassingly thin allegations of wrongdoing against prominent Democrats, and flop hearing after flop hearing. He and Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on Oversight, held a mostly professional and bipartisan hearing to examine the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The two came together to call for the Secret Service director’s resignation, and the following morning, they got their wish.
The productivity and (dare we say) collegiality continued from there. The Oversight committee inched along a handful of other important apolitical initiatives, like cracking down on retaliation against TSA whistleblowers and scrutinizing the federal government’s response to the Maui wildfires.Â
But then, Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate in the 2024 presidential election. And Comer quickly succumbed to the temptation to wield the committee as a partisan weapon during the last stretch of a dramatic campaign season. Within two weeks, he had launched an investigation into Walz’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, eager to get to the bottom of whether Walz is a Manchurian candidate of the most literal kind. He wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray:
Join Bulwark+ to unlock the rest
Become a paying member of The Bulwark to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
- Unlimited access to articles and newsletters including The Triad by JVL and Receipts by Catherine Rampell.
- Ad-free editions of our shows (with transcripts) and member-only shows like The Secret Podcast.
- Plus community chats and commenting features. Your support helps keep our work sustainable and available to those who cannot afford a membership. Cancel anytime.