House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer tried to blame everyone other than himself after their star witness in their sham of an impeachment hearing just blew up in their face and was revealed to be an asset of Russian intelligence. Comer and Newsmax host Eric Bolling are also none too happy with NY Rep. Dan Goldman for correctly calling Comer and his fellow members of the Putin wing of the Republican party Russian assets.
Here's Comer's attempt at damage control with Bolling this Wednesday:
BOLLING: Take a listen to your fellow Congressmen, Democrat from New York, Dan Goldman, who says you're a, I guess a puppet of Putin. Listen.
GOLDMAN: Not only is there no evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden, but it now appears as if the House Republican majority is being used by Russia to interfere in the 2024 election on behalf of Donald Trump.
If they continue with this investigation, they are simply doing the work of Vladimir Putin to help Donald Trump win an election in November. That's where we are.
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It tells you the real danger that our Congress is in right now having been held captive by Donald Trump and now operating at the behest of Russian intelligence and Vladimir Putin.
BOLLING: He did that with a straight face... a frozen face, but a straight face nonetheless.
COMER: You know, they're going to play the Russia card again. Every time they get back into a corner, they start playing the Russia card, and that's what Dan Goldman done. That's what Jamie Raskin's done.
You know they they they talk about the Steele dossier and all that. at the end of the day, with with respect to the FBI informant that Christopher Wray told Jamie Raskin, me, Charles Grassley, Jim Jordan, was one of their most trusted, highest paid informants with the bureau for over a decade.
You know the at the at the end of the day, he wasn't an important part of this investigation because I didn't even know who he was. All I knew was there was a 1023 that alleged bribery. My investigation is about all the money the Bidens have taken from China, from Romania.... (crosstalk)
BOLLING: For not in return for nothing.
COMER: This guy had absolutely nothing to do with it. We got a tip. We investigate. We couldn't figure out who it was.
So it's not their fault. It's Christopher Wray's fault. As Marcy Wheeler noted on Xitter, they knew the FD-1023 wasn't fact-checked, but they were all ready to pounce on it anyway:
And of course, Bolling and Newsmax left out the better part of the Goldman interview on CNN as part of his softball question to Comer. Here's more of the interview that they cherry picked from:
REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): Well, it's pretty shocking and especially what it means that has been going on for the last four years, which is that wittingly or unwittingly, House Republicans have been acting as an agent or an asset of Russian intelligence for Vladimir Putin.
This whole Burisma thing was debunked during the first impeachment investigation in 2019 by numerous, numerous witnesses, all of whom experts on Ukraine and Russia. And now this 1023 materializes from a purported conversation in 2020 that is treated as gospel by the Republicans.
I would like to know whether or not Sen. Grassley, who had a copy of this 1023 before the FBI ever gave it or Chairman Comer or Chairman Jordan, all of whom were singing the praises of the information provided by this source had any idea whether or not it was completely bogus and was in fact a plant by Russian intelligence, which has been trying to meddle somewhat successfully in our election since 2016.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN: You're talking about a 1023. That's where this information initially was reported in, correct?
GOLDMAN: Yes, it's a report of a interview that a confidential human source will provide to his handlers at the FBI to explain the conversations or the information that he has gathered. The FBI then writes it down very meticulously, so they know exactly what he said.
That 1023 is the only evidence - the only evidence - that the Republicans in the House, as part of this impeachment inquiry, have related to these Burisma bribery allegations, which both Chairman Comer and Chairman Jordan - oh, they pushed incredibly hard. And Chairman Jordan and Chairman Comer have said that this is the best evidence they have of misconduct by President Biden. In fact, it is no evidence. It is just simply evidence that the Republicans are willing to be used as assets of Russian intelligence, just like Donald Trump was in 2016 and throughout his presidency when he went to a press conference in Helsinki and chose Vladimir Putin's word over his own intelligence community.
That is who we are dealing with. It is now a pervasive disease that has gone through the entire Republican Party, and it needs to be excised immediately.
I await this all coming back to bite them if they really want to follow through with the impeachment. I'll leave everyone with this from Ron Filipkowski:
