The White House attacked a House panel investigating the alleged “weaponization” of the federal government against Republicans, likening it to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s campaign in the 1950s against suspected communists in the government.
(Bloomberg) — The White House attacked a House panel investigating the alleged “weaponization” of the federal government against Republicans, likening it to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s campaign in the 1950s against suspected communists in the government.
The House select subcommittee is scheduled to hold its first hearing Thursday examining “politicization of the FBI and DOJ and attacks on American civil liberties.” The session marks the opening of a new front in House Republicans’ broad-based investigations into President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Today, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is launching the Fox News reboot of the House Un-American Activities Committee with a political stunt that weaponizes Congress to carry out the priorities of extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg.
The document is part of a counteroffensive White House officials have launched against Republicans, who ramped up their probes this week into Biden and his family. The White House plans to distribute the memo to Democrats on Capitol Hill and outside allies ahead of the hearing, according to an official familiar with the plan.
Earlier: House Republicans’ Hunter Biden Probe Begins With a Thud
The GOP subpanel is calling as witnesses former Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who recently quit the Democratic Party, as well as Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley. Former FBI agent Nicole Parker is also expected to testify, according to the subcommittee.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee, and Elliot Williams, who served in the Justice Department during the Obama administration, are also expected to testify at Thursday’s hearing.
Gabbard has appeared frequently on Fox News since leaving Congress, where she has accused the FBI and Justice Department of targeting opponents of the Biden administration, including former President Donald Trump. Grassley and Johnson have criticized the FBI’s investigation of Hunter Biden, saying officials sought to “downplay derogatory information” for “the purpose of shutting down investigative activity.”
Parker wrote a Fox News op-ed last month, in which she said she left the bureau after it became “politically weaponized” and lost the public’s trust.
The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday held its first hearing into Biden’s son Hunter Biden, examining Twitter Inc.’s decision to restrict access to an article about the purported contents of a laptop belonging to him that included information about his foreign business arrangements. But the hearing, which took place the day after Biden’s State of the Union, failed to produce new revelations about those dealings.
Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan and the Judiciary Committee, called the White House’s memo “bogus spin.” In a statement, he said the weaponization panel’s work would “tell the story of dozens of brave FBI whistleblowers, who have put their careers on the line, to shed light on what they se as bias and politicization at the FBI and Justice Department.”
In an interview Tuesday, Jordan said the panel will show the politicization “has been pretty far-reaching.”
The White House has sought to draw a contrast between the GOP investigations and Biden’s approach, saying the president has kept his focus on kitchen-table issues such as inflation and health care. The memo included Washington Post polling data showing most Americans see the “weaponization” panel as an attempt to score political points rather than conduct a legitimate investigation.
“Instead of working with President Biden to address the top priorities of the American people,” Sams said, “this is what House Republicans are focused on.”
The FBI and Justice Department have denied allegations of political bias.
–With assistance from Billy House.
(Adds Jordan comment starting in 10th paragraph)
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