>> The house oversight committee
under new Republican leadership
has announced its first hearing
set for next month on
mismanagement of pandemic relief
funding.
The committee's new chairman
James comer since his passion is
tackling waste, fraud and abuse
of taxpayer dollars in the
federal government.
Other priorities include
investigating the Biden
administration's immigration
policies.
U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
and the business dealings of
Biden family members.
I spoke with the congressman
earlier today starting with the
issue currently in the oversight
committee's crosshairs.
The discovery of classified
documents from president Biden's
time as vice president.
Welcome to the newshour.
>> Thanks for having me.
>> Your committee is zeroing in
on classified documents
discovered at president Biden's
private residence and office.
What questions do you want
answered?
>> We would like to know who had
access to those documents, how
they ended up in multiple
locations and who was
responsible for notifying the
national archives that these
documents were in the possession
of Joe Biden and why did it take
so long for us to learn that
these documents had been
recovered?
We don't believe we would ever
know where it not for
investigating reporting by CBS.
We would like to know what type
of documents were in possession
of president Biden.
>> The president initially said
he was surprised to learn about
the discovery of these
documents.
Do you believe him?
>> Yes.
That should be of more concern
to the American people that he
didn't know he had.
It's hard for me to believe that
they said we are going to take
one set of documents in the
garage at the president's house
in Delaware.
You would believe somebody at
some point moved the documents
from one location to another.
That's why we need to know who
was in the proximity of the
classified documents and who
first -- discovered the
documents and what that process
was and why didn't the white
house immediately tell the
American people they had made a
mistake and improperly stored
classified documents considering
the fact that the president made
a very big deal out of it when
president trump did the same
thing.
>> You have said that your
biggest concern isn't the
classified documents and how
there is such a discrepancy and
how former president trump was
treated.
How can the American people view
your investigation is credible
when you openly admit that you
are not as concerned about the
underlying issue?
>> The underlying issue is we
are conducting a very thorough
and substantive investigation of
the Biden family for influence
peddling.
There is no question the Bidens
have received millions of
dollars from our adversaries in
China as Russia as well as from
some shady characters in
Ukraine.
Why are they sending so much
money to the Bidens?
They want to return on their
investment.
When people like hunter Biden
and the president brothers had
access to those documents,
that's a concern because we
wonder whether or not this
administration's compromised
because of the millions of
dollars the Biden family has
received from our adversaries
around the world.
>> You are connecting a lot of
dots there.
What evidence do you have to
backup those assertions?
>> It's not hard to connect the
dots that there has been a lot
of money wired into various
Biden interests from our
adversaries around the world and
we are concerned that they are
doing this not out of charity
but because they want to get
something in return.
When we find out there are
documents that have been
mishandled at the Biden
residence where the residence
brothers and son spend a lot of
time, then we are concerned.
>> Will you subpoena white house
officials or the president
himself is part of this
investigation?
>> It's very complicated to
subpoena a sitting president of
the United States.
The odds of that happening are
slim to none.
We will have questions before we
issue a report to give him an
opportunity to challenge any of
the assumptions from our final
investigation because we want to
be fair and balanced here.
The president will have an
opportunity to defend himself.
I don't think it will be under
subpoena or under oath.
>> Have congressional subpoenas
been undermined by the fact that
house speaker Kevin Mccarthy and
other members have defied to
subpoenas from the January 6
committee?
>> The subpoenas have been
undermined by the fact that the
Democrats issued to many.
The Democrats were sending
subpoenas out to officials like
junk mail and the more you issue
, the less value they have.
The whole credibility of
congressional oversight has been
undermined because of people
like Adam Schiff and because of
high-profile investigations from
both parties in the past but
never really amounted to
anything so I recognize the fact
that congressional
investigations don't have the
credibility that they should and
it's going to be my job to try
to have a credible investigation
based on fact that is fair and
balanced and in the end
hopefully there will be things
accomplished.
>> Your committee includes a
number of Republican hardliners
who have denied the election
results of 2020, who have openly
flirted conspiracy theories.
At least two of them have
associated with white
supremacists.
Why should any member of
congress have a role on your
committee that has the
responsibility of ensuring
accountability across the entire
federal government?
>> Both sides of the I'll have
what you would call firebrands.
Remember they have the majority
of the squad over there.
You have to leave who has said
anti-semitic statements.
You have ocasio-cortez.
And Presley and bush who have
said that I would consider
anti-american.
So both sides of the aisle have
members of congress that aren't
in the mainstream so to speak.
I'm confident people in my
committee are there for the
right reasons.
They wanted to be on the
oversight committee.
They fought hard to get on the
oversight committee.
This was in more demand than any
committee on the house of
representatives.
I will say this, anything that
ends up on oversight committee
stationary is going to be
factual.
I'm sure there's going to be
things that people in both sides
of the aisle say that may or may
not be 100% in line with reality
sometimes.
But at the end of the day when
we publish a report and when our
work is done with respect to
certain investigation, I think
you are going to see that 100%
of what's going to be in that
report is going to be factual
and verifiable.
>> James comer, thanks for your
time.