Scoop: Harris-Walz probes ignite House GOP divisions
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House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer during a May 22 hearing on Capitol Hill. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images.
Some House GOP lawmakers fear their party's new investigations into Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz could potentially backfire politically.
Why it matters: House Republicans have unleashed a barrage of investigations targeting Harris and Walz in the run-up to the Democratic convention.
- One House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity to critique their party's investigations, said the probes are "unnecessary."
- "We have an election to win. Don't make these people martyrs," the lawmaker told Axios.
- Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) argued that investigating Harris and Walz is "fair" but that investigators need to be sure to "handle it professionally."
Zoom in: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Friday launched a probe into Walz, the governor of Minnesota, over his ties to China.
- Comer has also been investigating Harris for her role as the Biden administration's point person on the sources of migration to the U.S.
- It's not just the Oversight Committee: Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the chair of the House Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel, is investigating Walz for how he represented his record in the Army National Guard.
Zoom out: House Republicans are no strangers to investigating Democratic presidential candidates.
- Hillary Clinton was the subject of relentless GOP investigations into the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, with Kevin McCarthy infamously boasting that the probes damaged her ahead of the 2016 election.
- Since Republicans retook the House last year, the Oversight Committee has focused much of its energy on an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, who dropped his bid for re-election last month.
- House Democrats, for their part, used their majority in 2019 and 2020 to launch an array of investigations into former President Trump, which led to two impeachments.
What they're saying: Several House Republicans argued the investigations stand in for the scrutiny that would have come from a competitive Democratic primary, which Harris sidestepped by replacing Biden on the ticket.
- Banks told Axios: "If they don't like scrutiny, they shouldn't apply for the job."
- Another House Republican said: "These will be the two most powerful people in our country. There has been no regular primary process. Congress has a legitimate oversight role to ensure we understand their roles and interests ... this is the best way to bring light."
- The lawmaker also pointed to the "deeply flawed" investigations of Trump as evidence that both parties engage in these types of probes.
What to watch: House Democrats are accusing Republicans of leading a blatant political fishing expedition into their party's presidential ticket.
- "I don't think any rational person would see this as anything other than continuing to use official congressional authority, improperly, to help Donald Trump's electoral goals," said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.).
- As for Democrats' investigations into Trump, Goldman argued the former president "had a laundry list of things that he did wrong," while Walz and Harris haven't "done anything that merits an investigation other than [being] on the Democratic ticket."
