White House rips appointment of ‘extreme MAGA members’ to House Oversight panel

The White House on Wednesday bashed House Republicans for placing some of their most controversial members on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, accusing the GOP of “handing the keys of oversight” to extremists.

The administration responded to news that Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) would both serve on the Oversight committee after being stripped of their committee assignments during the last Congress for incendiary comments, including violent rhetoric toward other lawmakers.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a central figure in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, also tweeted that he will serve on the Oversight committee, which will play a central role in investigating the Biden White House in the next two years.

“As we have said before, the Biden Administration stands ready to work in good faith to accommodate Congress’ legitimate oversight needs,” Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson on GOP investigations, said in a statement. “However, with these members joining the Oversight Committee, it appears that House Republicans may be setting the stage for divorced-from-reality political stunts, instead of engaging in bipartisan work on behalf of the American people.”

Sams accused Republicans of “handing the keys of oversight to the most extreme MAGA members of the Republican caucus who promote violent rhetoric and dangerous conspiracy theories.”

The administration official noted that Greene was censured for her social media posts that referenced violence against Democrats, Gosar repeatedly downplayed the events of Jan. 6, and Perry defied a subpoena in a House investigation into the attack on the Capitol.

“House Republican leaders should explain why they are allowing these individuals to serve on this Committee and reveal transparently once and for all what secret deals they made to the extreme MAGA members in order to elect a Speaker,” Sams said in a statement, urging Republicans to focus on issues such as inflation instead.

Sams’s statement came one day after the White House called on McCarthy to publicly disclose the specifics of any deals he brokered with the roughly 20 conservative members who initially opposed his bid for Speaker.

House Republicans are expected to aggressively use their oversight powers to probe Biden’s conduct. Some members, like Greene, have gone as far as suggesting Biden could be impeached.

Biden is already under scrutiny from House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) over the discovery of classified documents from when Biden was vice president at his old office and his Delaware residence.