House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (top); Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado (bottom left); Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia (bottom right)
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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has teed up a slew of investigations for the 118th Congress.
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert want in on the GOP oversight blitz.
Neither of them “has demonstrated a capacity for leading an investigation,” a GOP strategist said.
Passing out plum committee assignments may get House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy the votes he needs to realize his dream of becoming speaker, but some Republicans are worried about it backfiring on the party if the California lawmaker puts loose cannons like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert in charge of his planned oversight blitz.
Jason C. Roe, a former House aide and now GOP strategist, said placing Greene, of Georgia, or Boebert, of Colorado, on the House Oversight Committee in the 118th Congress — something Oversight Committee ranking member James Comer has said is already under discussion — would be “a disaster.”
—Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) November 17, 2022
“It might feed the MAGA crowd’s political bloodthirst. But it will be a recurring skit on SNL and continue to poison Republicans with independents,” Roe told Insider of the likely political blowback of assigning avid conspiracy theorists to work through the laundry list of investigations McCarthy has compiled over the past two years.
A unnamed GOP lawmaker currently assigned to the oversight panel sounded similarly alarmed, telling The Washington Post that “if you want to be taken seriously, you have to treat the issue seriously.”
“The question is: Can Comer control some of the potential new members — like the woman from Georgia — that care less about substance and more about their Twitter profile?” the Oversight Committee member said of the need to keep congressional probes above board.
Boebert and Greene did not immediately respond to requests for comment about their preferred committee assignments or their investigatory priorities for the coming year. McCarthy’s office has repeatedly told Insider that the House GOP steering committee, which McCarthy leads, will handle assignments for the next Congress “at the appropriate time.”
Once House Republicans officially take control of the chamber on January 3, McCarthy and Comer plan to unleash the majority power’s investigative powers on President Joe Biden, his scandal-plagued son Hunter Biden, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI director Chris Wray, and other perceived political enemies.
Aaron Cutler, a former House GOP leadership aide and now partner at Hogan Lovells, urged House Republicans to avoid “focusing on the wrong things,” and to cut bait if needed.
That entails “knowing when to let something go or let it sort of peter out, as opposed to devoting lots of time and resources” to lost causes, Cutler said.
Proving that Republicans are serious
Liz Mair, a former Republican National Committee aide and now public relations consultant, said picking the right investigative targets could help House Republicans spur interest in the other chamber.
Mair estimates that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Ron Johnson would be the likeliest allies — assuming things are handled properly. Johnson serves as ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
“I think Mitch would be supportive of looking at what happened with the Afghanistan withdrawal, some of the wasteful spending, some energy production stuff, and IRS politicization,” she wrote in an email. She added that if rabid partisanship leads to good governance, even if by accident, that might still be worth it.
“It is possible for people who want to do this stuff mainly for political reasons to actually put some genuine points on the board that aren’t related to administration gigs or launchpads for bigger, better campaigns themselves,” Mair told Insider.
Cutler, for his part, said he saw the potential for bipartisan and cross-chamber collaboration on China-related issues like supply chain problems, Uyghur labor abuse, and national security concerns. He said he could see a promised COVID-19 origins probe, which is expected to skewer retiring White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, being a House-only project.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Tuesday, November 22, 2022, in Washington.
Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
Whether they catch on in the Democratic-controlled Senate or not, Cutler said House GOP leaders need to produce more than a slew of investigations if they hope to remain in power past 2024.
“Leader McCarthy will also need to chart a policy path that sends a strong message to the American people that Republicans are serious about governing and leading,” Cutler told Insider.
Some of the legislative wins Cutler said he’d like to see the GOP notch in the new year include dealing with the debt ceiling, fully funding the government, reauthorizing the expiring Federal Aviation Administration and Farm Bill agreements, putting some guardrails in place for cryptocurrency, and “maybe some housing finance reform.”
Dedicating the next election cycle to just beating up Hunter Biden rather than fulfilling campaign promises to fix the economy, southern border, and crime would ultimately doom the party, Roe warned.
“There needs to be a focus on issues that matter to Americans on a daily basis, not the pursuit of past injustices,” he said, adding that “Republicans run the risk of alienating independents if they are merely defined by their investigations in the 2024 election.”
Keeping everyone busy
Cutler predicted that House leaders would ensure that any oversight efforts are conducted in a “serious and thoughtful” manner.
“That said, there is the real prospect for overreach — both by virtue of the topics involved and some of the lawmakers that may want to become involved,” he said.
Tossing Greene and Boebert into the mix might seem automatically disqualifying, Mair said — unless distracting them with unfettered Biden bashing frees up McCarthy elsewhere.
“I don’t think either of those members has demonstrated a capacity for leading an investigation,” Mair said. “But it could be a great way to bog them down with something that gets them the headlines they want on a single issue and keeps them from causing problems in other areas.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing with testimony from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland at the U.S. Capitol on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images
Given that some sort of spectacle is probably unavoidable at this point, Roe urged House Republicans to tread carefully.
“Any high-profile hearings will become a clickbait platform, so we can expect plenty of performative questioning,” Roe said of the allure of controlling the spotlight. He added that putting in the time and effort to conduct a rock-solid investigation “could be a launching pad for lots of political ambitions.”
Producing an unimpeachable report might help others climb the ladder, Mair said. But she’s fairly certain it won’t do much for McCarthy’s future.
“Kevin McCarthy has about the worst job in America right now. And I wouldn’t put any money on him surviving until 2024 — no matter what he does,” Mair said.