- When there's a congressional investigation,
the public part of it often plays out here,
in the House Oversight Hearing Room.
House Republicans have vowed to make investigations
a centerpiece of their work as a majority.
James Comer, the chairman of this panel,
will play a large role in what happens next.
I know you've been saying for weeks and months
now that the Biden family investigation,
the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the origins of COVID
are the priorities right now for this committee.
- Mm-hmm.
- What issue right now is taking precedence?
- We have the bandwidth to have multiple probes,
multiple investigations going on at one time.
Our first hearing, we're going to be focused on COVID funds.
We're bringing in the inspector general,
someone from GAO,
someone from the fraud division with Secret Service,
'cause we're concerned about how taxpayer dollars
are misspent in this committee.
- When it comes to the investigation
into the Biden family, you are terming that
as the Biden family investigation and probe,
not just on the president.
Why are you extending that out to his family,
instead of just focusing on him?
- We want to be very clear -- we're investigating Joe Biden,
but to investigate Joe Biden,
you have to look at the Biden family
and where their money sources come from,
and that's what we're doing.
- The Washington Post has not confirmed
any claims of wrongdoing by President Biden or his family.
The president did comment in November on the prospect
of congressional investigations that are focused on him.
- I think the American people will look at all that
for what it is.
It's just an almost comedy.
I mean, it's, uh -- But, you know,
look, I can't control what they're going to do.
All I can do is continue to try to make life better
for the American people.
- Is there any thinking on your part, as a chairman,
that this might be deemed as retaliation politics?
- We're going into a situation where we realize
that there's not a lot of credibility
for congressional investigations.
Many people believe they're overtly partisan.
But, look, this is -- I apologize to no one
for this investigation.
And look at -- You know, the question is,
"Do you consider this a revenging?"
There were a lot of investigations
of the former president. This, to my knowledge,
is the only investigation of Biden
in the House of Representatives.
This is the only one, and I'm pretty confident
that unless something happens,
there's not going to be another investigation.
We feel this is warranted.
- Do you think this issue of classified documents
does extend out to perhaps scrutiny of members of Congress
who may have something at home
that either they're not aware of or took after a meeting?
Are you gonna look into members of Congress?
- Absolutely. You know, that's gonna be --
When we bring the National Archives in,
we're gonna talk about this.
And you know, there's some people that say
the federal government overclassifies documents.
I've had a lot of the military members in Congress,
in both parties, tell me one of the problems
is the federal government overclassifies.
There's things they classify that are no big deal,
that everybody knows, that you shouldn't classify.
This is a big problem that needs to be addressed.
And you know, when you have a situation like this,
this is an opportunity to fix a problem.
- When it comes to the makeup of this committee,
there are some new additions, and a few of them are well-known
for some controversial statements
they have made last year
and since they've been members of Congress.
Should they play a role on a committee like this,
that is tasked with oversight of the government?
- Absolutely.
They're passionate about oversight.
We have some of the "furthest to the right,
on the political spectrum," members now on the committee,
just like the Democrats have the members furthest to the left.
I can't promise you today
that there won't be controversial things
said by members of my side of the aisle.
- If things get out of hand or become sort of,
like, the circus-style hearings that we have all seen televised,
how are you going to handle that as chair,
and is that a concern for you?
- Inevitably, there will be times
where someone on one side
or the other says something that offends another member,
or that another member feels is incorrect,
and there will be, you know, a parliamentary move or whatever.
Hopefully, that will be limited, and hopefully,
we can allow each person to have their five minutes.
But it's always been --
it's always happened in this committee.
I'm sure it'll happen in the future,
but it's my goal to keep it under control.