White House: Comer, Jordan are ‘posing for the cameras’ on impeachment instead of funding government

The White House on Monday attacked House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) for focusing on an impeachment inquiry into President Biden instead of on averting a government shutdown.

The House Oversight Committee will hold its first hearing on the impeachment inquiry into Biden on Thursday and Comer said while it is not expected to cover new ground, it will be a refresher course “to help educate the Washington, D.C., press corps.”

Meanwhile, Congress faces a Saturday deadline to pass legislation to fund the government and prevent a shutdown. So far, House Republicans have not agreed to a deal among themselves, let alone with the Senate and White House.

“Instead of working to avoid the pain they and their extreme House Republican colleagues could inflict on Kentuckians and Ohioans with their shutdown plan, Comer and Jordan are posing for the cameras to attack President Biden with debunked smears — it’s D.C. politics at its worst,” said Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations.

The White House said Comer and Jordan’s focus on impeachment is a distraction “to take attention away from extreme House Republicans’ disastrous shutdown plan.” It also called out that about 300,000 Kentucky and Ohio women, children and infants are at risk of losing good assistance if the government shuts down.

“While Comer and Jordan are focused on baseless political stunts to get themselves attention on Fox News, 300,000 of people at risk in Kentucky and Ohio — including vulnerable infants — could lose access to the food assistance they need because of extreme House Republicans’ shutdown plan. If they get their way, women and children who count on this food assistance could soon start being turned away at grocery store counters,” Sams said.

While Comer has said he believes President Biden accepted a bribe as part of his dealings in Ukraine as vice president, the GOP has yet to find a smoking gun to back those claims. The White House had previously bashed Republicans for “staging a political student” days before a government shutdown.

Biden on Monday criticized House Republicans for heading toward a government shutdown, saying that they shouldn’t be elected if they can’t do their job to fund the government. He noted that he made a deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in May that led to an increase in the debt ceiling. 

Under that deal, lawmakers voted for legislation that set ceilings on spending for the next year. Now conservatives in the House are seeking to make deeper cuts than that deal.