Republican Rep. James Comer suggested during a right-wing podcast earlier this week that President Joe Biden’s deceased son Beau Biden should have been investigated in connection with a long-settled case on “campaign donations” from a backer who was eventually indicted.
That suggestion from the newly appointed House Oversight Committee Chairman didn’t sit well with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who called the comments “ugly” and “inappropriate.”
“This U.S. attorney had an opportunity to go after the Bidens years ago,” Comer said on former Fox Business host Lou Dobbs’ podcast. The high-ranking House Republican then continued: “In fact, it was Beau Biden, the president’s other son, that was involved in some campaign donations from a person that got indicted, as well as Joe Biden was involved in some of these campaign donations when he was a senator, and then when he ran for president against Obama.”
Comer’s attempted dig at Beau Biden stems from a 2012 case in which the President’s son, then the attorney general of Delaware, recused himself. The investigation in question centered around a Joe Biden campaign donor who was “illegally funneling contributions” to Biden’s campaign operation, according to The Washington Post.
“But nothing ever happened. So I don’t know much about this U.S. attorney other than he’s had an opportunity to investigate the Bidens before, and he chose not to,” Comer added. “We all know that he’s just been silent for a long time.”
On Wednesday afternoon in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Jean-Pierre addressed The Daily Beast’s question about Comer invoking the president’s now-deceased son.
“It’s completely inappropriate. It’s ugly, the comments that he made. It says a lot about the chairman, which is not good, by the way,” Jean-Pierre said from the podium. “To make the statement that he did is incredibly ugly and inappropriate.”
“Instead of House Republicans focused on attacking the President and his family, why don’t they focus on what the American people put them in office to do, which is to deliver for them,” she continued.
The White House press secretary concluded by ripping into House Republicans over their focus on “political stunts.”
Earlier in the day, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also said on MSNBC that Coomer’s remarks were “appalling.”
“It’s despicable. And frankly, it says quite a lot—none of it good—about Jim Comer,” Bedingfield said.
