On Politics: House Republicans pivot scrutiny from Biden to Harris
Good evening. Tonight, my colleague Luke Broadwater tells us how the House Republicans who have spent lots of time investigating President Biden are switching gears. And we have a dispatch from Donald Trump's news conference at Mar-a-Lago. — Jess Bidgood
House Republicans pivot scrutiny from Biden to HarrisThe latest, 89 days out
Since taking power in 2023, House Republicans have thrown most of their investigative muscle into inquiries of President Biden and his family, seeking evidence of wrongdoing — and possibly denting his re-election prospects. Twenty months and many hearings later, they have produced an as-yet-unreleased impeachment inquiry report largely related to the complex financial dealings of the son and the brother of a man who is no longer running for president. The entire Republican Party, from former President Trump on down, is working to adjust its strategy to taking on Vice President Kamala Harris. And that extends to House Republicans, who are pivoting to a new investigative target with just three months to go until the election. They are essentially starting from square one. Republicans spent almost no time over the last year and a half investigating Harris, who is now the Democratic Party's nominee. For Democrats, it's been a little-noticed sweetener of the party's candidate switch — one that has revealed a strategic gap that Republicans are moving quickly to close. Making up for lost timeGiven that Congress is a body made up of politicians, almost no congressional inquiry is undertaken without considering its political ramifications. Democrats mostly investigate Republicans; Republicans mostly investigate Democrats. Harris, however, has been left largely unscathed by the Republican-controlled House. It wasn't until this week that Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced an investigation into Harris related to immigration at the southern border. Harris was asked by Biden to look into root causes of the migration surge at the border; Republicans have falsely labeled her a failed "border czar," even though her assignment was not border enforcement. In a letter to Troy Miller, the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Comer demanded any documents and communications between the agency and Ms. Harris related to the southwest border or illegal immigration. The goal was clear: to demonstrate that Ms. Harris had failed to tackle the problems at the southern border, which has been a key line of attack against Harris by the Trump campaign. "It is unclear what actions, if any, Vice President Harris has taken to fix the border crisis," Comer wrote, adding, "The committee seeks to understand whether Vice President Harris has 'done anything' to address the worst border crisis in American history." They do not have much time to figure it out. The election is 89 days away, and Congress is on recess until September. The chamber did, however, vote in late July for a symbolic resolution condemning Harris over the Biden administration's handling of the border. That measure drew support from six Democrats. But they have so far not unearthed any new facts about Harris that could be useful to the Trump campaign. In a statement, Comer suggested that investigations into Harris would require more of a pivot than a major strategy shift. He said the work that House Republicans have done since 2021 investigating issues at the border could be hung on Ms. Harris and what he called the "Biden-Harris administration's failed border policies." Comer wrote that since Harris was "given a key role in President Biden's response to the border crisis, Americans deserve to know the full extent of Kamala Harris's role." A report in limboAs for House Republicans' impeachment inquiry report into Biden, it is unclear when — if ever — they will release it. House Republicans lack the votes to impeach the president, and his sudden withdrawal from the race last month has further lessened the political desire to do so. Some Republicans are worried that the release of the report, which is slated to accuse Biden of impeachable offenses without direct evidence of his committing high crimes or misdemeanors, will encourage right-wing members of Congress to call for snap impeachment votes. Such measures would force Republicans who hail from swing districts into politically tricky votes while the G.O.P. is trying to cling to its House majority. Asked recently for an update on the status of the impeachment inquiry report, Comer said a final decision was up to Speaker Mike Johnson. Three committees, including Ways and Means and Judiciary, have been working for months on various drafts of the document. "That's all in Speaker Johnson's hands," Comer said of the impeachment inquiry report. For their part, Democrats have long believed House Republicans were wasting time and money in their pursuit of Biden. "We have spent tens of millions of dollars pursing Joe Biden, and you have yet to identify a single crime," Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told Comer during a hearing in May. "That is a lie," Comer responded, noting that his committee was spending from its budget and did not have a special allocation to pursue Biden. "We haven't spent hardly anything." "Then we get what we paid for because you got nothing," Raskin shot back.
Trump takes questions, taunts Harris for not doing the sameDonald Trump tried on Thursday to wrestle back the spotlight from Vice President Kamala Harris, holding an hourlong news conference in which he fielded questions from journalists, criticized her for failing to do the same and insulted her intelligence. My colleagues Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher and Jonathan Swan were there. Throughout the event, held in the main room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club and home in Palm Beach, Fla., the former president assailed the state of the U.S. economy, described the country as in mortal danger if he did not win the election and falsely described his departure from the White House — which was preceded by his refusal to concede his election loss in November 2020 and the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of his supporters — as a "peaceful" transfer of power. He also flashed frustration when asked about the size of Harris's crowds while boasting about the attendance at his rally on Jan. 6, and insisted that the group of hundreds that stormed the Capitol was relatively small. But he fixated on the size of the crowd that he initially gathered on the national mall, making comparisons to — and declaring it was larger than — the one drawn by Martin Luther King Jr. for his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. "If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours — same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not — we had more," Trump said. The Trump team has been looking for ways to interrupt Harris's momentum as she has quickly consolidated the Democratic Party behind her and risen in the polls. The goal of Trump's news conference, which he announced on Thursday morning on his social media site, was to highlight that Harris has yet to hold a news conference of her own or to give an unscripted interview to the news media. — Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher and Jonathan Swan Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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