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Cheryl Atkisson
Taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com foreign hi everybody. Cheryl Atkinson here. Welcome to another edition of Full Measure. After Hours. Today, the House Oversight Committee and ongoing deep state resistance to the Trump agenda and Trump's appointees. This week I speak with the powerful Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer of Kentucky. I really feel like I got some fascinating insight. We talk about the fight between Trump's Cabinet level appointees, including Pam Bondi at DOJ and Kash Patel at the FBI and what he calls the deep state resistant to the new agenda. We touch upon the fight over releasing all of the classified JFK files and the Epstein files. And at the time of this interview, the Trump DOJ was still withholding the Epstein files from the Oversight Committee, just as the Biden administration had done before it. We're also going to talk about the IRS and FBI whistleblowers and their fate, the committee's Act Blue investigation, Hunter Biden, and basically a federal government adjusting to and largely doing combat with the Trump agenda in his second term. Here's Congressman James Comer.
James Comer
Yeah, if you compare this Trump administration to the first one, he's clearly prepared. This time he had an agenda. They were very quick to do their executive orders. They've been very calculated in how they've done the executive orders. A lot of the executive orders, they anticipated court challenges and they're lawyered up and ready to go. So I think that the progress that the president has made coming out of the gate is unprecedented. I'm very satisfied with that. He's put some Cabinet secretaries in and as we all knew, they're going to face a lot of deep state opposition from within. You've got every government agency from the Department of Justice to the EPA that is fully employed by left wing activists that are going to do everything in their ability to obstruct and to slow down all the progress and momentum that President Trump has coming out of the gate. So I think the president's done a tremendous job. I think a lot of his Cabinet secretaries have done a really good job, and a lot of them are unfortunately facing a lot of internal battles that I'm optimistic will win at the end of the day.
Interviewee
Is the Oversight Committee following any of these issues, such as release of these documents, including the Epstein documents, and do you know what's going on with that?
James Comer
Yeah, absolutely. I appointed a task force led by Anna Polina Luna, who's very persistent, and we're trying to follow through on the President's directives to release certain classified documents, what we call our American secrets. If you'll remember, when President Trump ordered the declassification of the JFK files, we found out a few days later that the bureaucracy only released a handful of documents. They still kept thousands of pages. So our task force is trying to reach out and question the bureaucrats, figure out which bureaucrat didn't comply with the orders. Same thing happened with the Epstein files. When Pam Bondi thought she was releasing the Epstein files, it really wasn't the Epstein files, obviously. So that task force is kind of working very hard behind the scenes to identify which bureaucracies and which bureaucrats are not complying with the President's orders. And that's a common battle that a Republican President faces in this town. You've got when a Republican wins the White House, they come in and they appoint Republicans to be Cabinet secretaries, but then they have thousands of employees that are protected by the civil service system, protected by merit or tenure, whatever you want to call it, that just will not follow orders. That's why we want to reclassify a lot of the federal employees to what's called a Schedule F employee, which means if you don't follow the orders from your Cabinet secretary or division manager, then you can lose your job, which is what would happen in the private sector. So the task force is going to try to follow through, because you're just dealing with a lot of bureaucracies. There's a reason the government doesn't want to turn over all the JFK files. There's a reason the government doesn't want to turn over the Epstein files. So hopefully our task force in the Oversight Committee can push these agencies and these bureaucrats to do what they're supposed to do.
Interviewee
Do you anticipate that the task force or the committee will have hearings and we'll actually have names named and there'll be accountability to that?
James Comer
I do. I do. And Anna Paulina Luna's chomping at the bit to bring some of these people in. So, you know, there aren't many people in this town that want to come in front of the House Oversight Committee, I mean, you can ask NPR and PBS about that yesterday or the four mayors of the sanctuary cities, and the list goes on and on and on. The former Secret Service director, if you come in front of the House Oversight Committee and you've been behaving badly, it's not going to end well for you. So hopefully we'll see some more movement on these documents. But again, it's just a perfect example of what Pam Bondi, Cash Patel, Brooke Rollins, whoever, Lee Zeldin, doesn't matter, whoever the head of a cabinet or agency is, they're going to face internal opposition on a daily basis.
Interviewee
Have you gotten any top line information on specifics of the documents being withheld, particularly on the Epstein case, from the FBI office in New York?
James Comer
No, I have no idea. You know, the excuse they always use, and I dealt with this in the Biden investigation, was there's an ongoing investigation. There's an ongoing investigation. Well, there's always an ongoing investigation. There's probably been an ongoing investigation of the Kennedy assassination since the 60s, and I'm sure there's an ongoing investigation in the Epstein drama. But at the end of the day, the President's ordered the release of these files. There has been enough time passed where the American people deserve to know who, who at the very least was on that list.
Interviewee
Do you think we now have all the JFK files or they're in the process of being posted and so on, or is there still more to come?
James Comer
Well, I would say that we've probably gotten pretty much what we're going to get. You know, the question I have is were there documents that have disappeared over the last four decades? And that's probably a possibility. You know, I find it hard to believe that if the government was involved in some type of role in the Kennedy assassination that they would say, okay, let's keep this file in this safe here. And, you know, I would think that file would disappear very quickly.
Interviewee
Well, I've said much the same about the Epstein files. Certainly if there are bad actors, they weren't holding the documents under a glass dome waiting for Trump to be reelected so that they could be released.
James Comer
You know, the thing that worries me about the Epstein files, and I've read a lot about it, like most Americans have, is, was our government involved in this? Were they potentially blackmail and some of the most influential people in the United States or in the world, if you go into, you know, Britain and other countries where we know there were very high Profile people that were going to the Epstein island or whatever you want to call it. And if so, the government knew that there was possibly human trafficking, that there was, you know, sex with minors and things like that. What were they doing? What were they. What role were they playing in this? What was their motive? And if that was the case, I find it hard to believe that any type of evidence of that would still be in existence.
Interviewee
Including videos?
James Comer
Including videos. Because there's a lot of liability there for the government. You know, I think at the very least, there are two questions most Americans have. Who is on the list? And did the government, our government, play any role in evaluating that or spying on that, or were they involved in any type of blackmail attempts or anything to get information? I mean, there's a lot of questions that people have that I think the government should answer now. Enough time has passed, but we're still battling that battle.
Interviewee
The administration, one official, stated on the record that they're working very hard to prepare for prosecutions, that they're looking through these documents. Is there also a role for the Oversight Committee in this?
James Comer
Yeah, I mean, we want to work with the administration any way we can. And I've delivered that message to Pam Bondi. I've had, you know, a couple of good conversations with Kash Patel and John Radcliffe. We've been on the front lines of battling the deep state. We believe our government has been involved in a lot of things that they shouldn't have been involved in. We believe that the government has provided information that was incorrect from a national security standpoint, dating all the way back to George Bush. And Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it's been a credibility crisis at our intelligence communities. And obviously, we fought with the Merrick Garland Department of Justice. We have a long list of things that we would like to see accomplished in the Department of Justice. We have a deep state list that we believe these employees need to be deposed, at the very least, to see, you know, to answer basic questions. Why did you cover this up? Why did you provide this statement? Why did you sign the letter saying that the laptop was rushing to when you knew darn well it was not Russian disinformation? So there's a lot of questions that we have, a lot of people that we believe need to be held accountable, and we're willing to offer our services. We'll work in depositions, we'll have public hearings, we'll do whatever. But we need to work with the Department of Justice.
Interviewee
Are you waiting for the green light from them, or are you working to schedule hearings on disposal?
James Comer
We're waiting for the green light.
Interviewee
And why haven't you gotten it yet?
James Comer
Well, I don't know. I mean, there's a lot to do and Pam Bondi is walking into an agency that's hostile towards her. There's no question about it. I mean, you've had a few people like Leslie Wolf that resigned before Pam Bondi took office that were involved in a lot of high profile government coverups, but there's still a lot of people in that Department of Justice. So she's having to battle within and hopefully she'll win that battle and we can see some accountability.
Interviewee
Just a side story, when Jeff Sessions became Trump's attorney general for a short period of time, very good sources, firsthand sources, said he would whisper in his own office.
James Comer
Yeah, yeah.
Interviewee
Did you hear that, too?
James Comer
Well, yeah, absolutely. And I've had conversations with Bill Barr. And look, you know, Bill Barr was getting, if you go back to the Biden investigation, Bill Barr was, was told things by his intelligence officials at the highest level that just weren't true. And, you know, Bill Barr, you would think could believe what his FBI director says or what his CIA director says, and you know, what the higher ups in the FBI and CIA and the Department of Justice would have to say about certain high profile cases. But in the end, they weren't being truthful with him. And some people say, well, Barr should have done this or Barr should have done that. Well, it's very difficult when you have all these people around you that are, that are just not honest. And I think that Bondi, to her credit, realizes that coming in. So, you know, it's going to take a while to put your people in place there because you've got all these career employees that you can't terminate. That's something that needs to be changed. And that's a role the Oversight Committee will play. Hopefully we can get legislation passed that will reclassify some higher level career employees to where you have to follow orders. I mean, if a president's elected by a mandate, and let's use the epa, for example, I'm good friends with Lee Zeldin, who's the EPA administrator. I knew Scott Pruitt, who is Trump's first EPA administrator. He was from Kentucky. You put these administrators in and they have a mandate. And the president campaigned and said, we're going to drill, we're going to frack. But then they order the epa. Okay, we're reversing course. We now want people to drill. We want people to frack and the EPA employees say, no, no, no, we're not going to approve any permits. We're going to fine the coal companies. We're going to do everything we can to put the coal companies out of business and to make sure the oil companies can't drill and get any new permits. So what's the repercussions of that? There's nothing. The way that the. The personnel laws are and the labor laws are in the federal government, it's impossible almost to fire these people, even though they're directly disobeying an order from the newly elected president who received a mandate and campaigned on changing the energy policy, for example. So all of these Cabinet secretaries, whether it's Brooke Rollins at AG or Pam Bondi at Department of justice, they're having to fight a lot of internal battles that really haven't made it into the mainstream media yet.
Interviewee
And you know this because you've talked with them, they're already facing.
James Comer
I've talked to some of the Cabinet secretaries.
Interviewee
What are Oversight Committee's top priorities?
James Comer
Well, from an investigation standpoint, which is what most people keep up with, we're very into the ActBlue investigation. I hope to be able to share some new information very soon on that.
Interviewee
What is the Act Blue investigation?
James Comer
ActBlue is the Democrat platform that they just raised hundreds of millions of dollars in this last election cycle from all these anonymous donors, which you can only get donations from people in the United States. So these donations had to be from people in the United States. But because of campaign finance laws, you don't have to disclose who a donor is if they donate less than $200. So all these $150 donations, $175, $199 donations just m miraculously coming in every day. And, you know, the Republicans, we have a platform too, called win red. But act glue outrage win read like 7 or 8 to 1.
Interviewee
And this is money that went to political campaigns.
James Comer
Went to political campaigns. Not just political campaigns, but a lot of the protests. You know, ActBlue is a platform for Democrats that want to have, you know, town hall protests and, you know, just disrupt lives in congressmen, protesters and things like that. Outside groups that, you know, have campaigns to promote the Green New Deal and then things like that. This, this Act Blue is very suspicious that they've raised this much money from this many people. If it was okay, the Democrats outraged Republicans 10 to 1, I would possibly believe that if you disclose who the donors were.
Interviewee
But you think there, there's foreign money in there.
James Comer
I think there's probably foreign money in there. I think there's a lot of money laundering that potential there. So we're following the money in the same manner we followed the money in the Biden family investigation and trying to trace the money back to where the original sources. We know there are people whose names were used in making donations that have already come out and said we weren't, we never made this donation or we made one donation, not 5,000 donations. So, so someone was using the names.
Interviewee
Did someone use the name 5,000 times?
James Comer
Someone's used the name many times on, on donations. And I think that it's just a matter of putting it, putting it all together. And that's what we're, what we're in the process of doing.
Interviewee
What's next on that? What do you expect, hearings or just deposition hearings?
James Comer
But here's the where I know we're hitting a nerve is I think the top five people at ActBlue have all resigned in the last three weeks. That's always a good sign because why would they resign? They raised a record amount of money. I mean, everything should be, you know, hunky dory over there, but yet they're all heading for the exit. So it'll also be interesting to see if did the Department of Justice and the Merrick Garland administration know what was going on at ActBlue? I think that's going to be another question because what I always said about the Biden family influence peddling investigation, there were two crimes. The crimes the Biden family committed, the financial crime and then there was the crime that the government knew what the Bidens were doing, but yet they covered it up because there were four agencies investigating the Biden. There was the Department of Justice, there's the FBI, the securities and Exchange Commission and the irs. And yet every time they were told to stand down by a deep state bureaucrat. And what I think will be interesting, act blue. Did the Department of Justice know about this and intentionally withhold it, hoping that if the Democrats had won the House and Harris had won the presidency, you could have just swept this under the rug. Foreign.
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James Comer
That's audible.com wonderyus to the Biden family investigation.
Interviewee
The book that you wrote and the investigations that you did, from what I saw and from what I looked into myself, really uncovered incredible detail about what happened and how much money came to the Biden family. Clearly. And I don't think even the Bidens denied in many cases that it was only because of the influence that Joe Biden was perceived to have. And there was so much detail in there about, as you said, the government agencies being told to stand down on certain investigations, particularly the IRS whistleblowers who wanted to follow the trail all the way to Joe Biden but were told they were not allowed to. In the end, after all of this, nothing much came of that. Nothing was done with it. Hardly.
James Comer
Well, Joe Biden pardoned his entire family on the way out. But with respect to the whistleblowers, Jim Jordan and I really been pushing the whistleblowers to be promoted in this new administration. And fortunately they were, they're going to be very high up at the IRS now. So we're excited about that. That's going to bring credibility back to the Internal Revenue Service. And then you've got the people at the Department of Justice. We've had a couple that have resigned. Leslie Wolf was one of the people that were, was involved in the COVID up of the Biden crime family schemes. But there are others. So hopefully, you know, this is one of the lists that we've given Patel and the Department of Justice. We hope that some of these employees that were involved in these cover ups are brought in and questioned because they need to be held accountable. And with respect to the Bidens, look, we believe that those pardons would not hold up in court. You can't pardon your entire family preemptively for an 11 year period for crimes that according to Joe Biden, they never committed. Well, if they never committed any crimes and they've never been charged for any crimes, then why are you pardoning your entire family?
Interviewee
Who says you can't do that? I guess there's not a precedent. But has it been challenged?
James Comer
There's no precedent. It's not been challenged. The, the entity that needs to challenge it is the Department of Justice.
Interviewee
Two more areas and then if there's anything you want to speak to people who have blown the whistle inside federal agencies are looking for redress. I guess the IRS whistleblowers have been taken care of.
James Comer
Yes.
Interviewee
What about some of the FBI whistleblowers? There's Stephen Friend, there are others who spoke out from inside. And I think people are waiting to see and hear what happens with them.
James Comer
Yeah, I don't know what's the process is ongoing with the FBI whistleblowers. Jim Jordan dealt more with them in the Judiciary Committee. I dealt with the IRS whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler, and I think they're very, very satisfied. And I think we sent a message to whistleblowers across the federal government. If you come forward and blow the whistle and what you say is true now, sometimes people blow the whistle and what they're accusing it doesn't always pan out. If you blow the whistle and what you said is true, then you're going to be rewarded. At the very least, you're not going to be retaliated against. And Shapley and Ziegler were retaliated against at the irs. So we've got a Treasury secretary and a soon to be IRS commissioner that know full well what Shapley and Zigler went through. Jim Jordan and I made sure of that. And I think they're going to be rewarded and they should be rewarded. Those are the type of government employees we need. They risked it all to do the right thing.
Interviewee
As you know, government is littered with stories like theirs. Things never turn out well for the whistleblower. It would not be hard, it seems to me, but for the fact that there's not enough support for Congress to pass a law that designates special status for whistleblowers who tell the truth, where they are encouraged to come forward and provide it. Not the whistleblower laws on the books, which are not helping them, but where there's not this upside down dynamic where they're punished and face retaliation. Even if their jobs are protected, they're still kind of ruined. Seems like there would be a way to flip that in government and say these are the kind of employees we want to reward them, to hold them out.
James Comer
I agree. And one of the upcoming hearings that we're in the process of talking about is one that deals with whistleblowers just to have people come forward that blew the whistle and tell their story. And what advice do you have for other whistleblowers? What can we do to protect whistleblowers and ask them questions about how were you retaliated against? So I think that's going to be a good hearing because if you're doing oversight like my committee does, you have to have whistleblowers. We can't make it without whistleblowers because anytime we request information, if you've got a hostile administration like the Biden administration was, and a hostile attorney general like Merrick Garland, they're going to say, well, we can't provide that because there's an ongoing investigation. I said that earlier in the interview. I heard that 10,000 times over the past two years. Well, we can't turn that over. There's an ongoing investigation. We're hearing that with the Epstein files now in this administration.
Interviewee
So who's telling you that?
James Comer
Well, that's what they. I mean, that's the. When we request information, if they don't provide it, that's what, say there's an ongoing investigation.
Interviewee
Some liaison to Congress tells you that.
James Comer
Well, whoever, whoever replies to our letter or subpoena. That's what they say. There's an ongoing investigation.
Interviewee
So even now they're citing.
James Comer
Well, we haven't, we haven't. We've been real careful to try to let you know, some of these cabinet officials get established and things like that. The task force has asked for, you know, the Epstein list and things like that, and that's been the reply thus far. But they still say, we're going to release it. We're in the process of releasing it. We've just got to make sure nothing is released that compromises the ongoing investigation.
Interviewee
And then the last area I wanted to talk about was the efforts to shrink government. Maybe Donald Trump is the first one that can kind of do this in a meaningful way in a long time, because as members have told me for many years, you don't win votes or make friends by cutting, ultimately cutting jobs and cutting grants and money going out the door. So how is that going? And what role is the oversight committee have in all of that?
James Comer
We're going to play a big role in this reduction in force that is clearly in our jurisdiction. When you look at a government agency, most government agencies, the biggest expense in their budget is personnel. We have too many federal employees, and there are some great federal employees. There are some employees that are working hard, and there are some employees that are probably working hard in agencies that we don't need. But at the end of the day, we can't continue to spend $2 trillion a year more than we take in. We can't afford the size of the federal government that we have. And there's an opportunity to eliminate a bunch of unnecessary federal agencies like the US Department of Education and return the power back to the states. There's an opportunity to eliminate FEMA and let the states administer that. That would solve a lot of bureaucratic nightmares that we deal with in our office every day. One of the biggest things I do from a casework standpoint, not being chairman of the House Oversight Committee, but being a U.S. representative for Kentucky's 1st congressional district, is help people navigate the federal bureaucracies. If you can eliminate the bureaucracies and let the states make education decisions based on curriculum, for example, let the states make decisions on how do we pay for debris removal after our storm, then I think that solves a lot of problems and it eliminates a lot of unnecessary waste. The spending for these federal employees salary and benefits and office space is enormous. And it's not just an annual thing. It's for life. If they, you know, when they retire, you're paying the pension for the rest of life, the health insurance for the rest of life, and, you know, for better or worse, we can't afford that anymore. And to Donald Trump's credit, he is stepping forward and saying, look, we're going to eliminate a bunch of agencies, we're going to eliminate a bunch of positions. Just look at the dei. I mean, it's illegal to discriminate. So Democrats try to say, oh, you're going to eliminate dei, you're going to discriminate? No, no, it's already illegal to discriminate. If someone gets fired because of their race, they can go to the personnel Cabinet, the personnel office. Every government agency has a personnel office. This DEI was an unnecessary added layer of bureaucracy that was used just to harass people in hiring. And we can get rid of that DEI and save a lot of taxpayer dollars and still protect workers from being discriminated.
Interviewee
But does Congress have to. And will they be doing things like passing a law that eliminates the Department of Education? So, on top of the executive order, as there are legal challenges, I think that would make some of them go away. Right.
James Comer
I've got a bill in the House and Mike Lee has one in the Senate that that's going to help expedite some of these executive orders and allow Congress to do an up or down vote on things. I think the public's going to support a lot of what President Trump's doing. So we're trying to do everything in our ability, from a congressional standpoint, to follow through on these executive orders and try to make them permanent.
Interviewee
Back to a question from earlier, though, it's not a popular thing when you have to go out, raise money as a member of Congress to be reelected every couple of years to make cuts. So is there pushback behind closed doors from other Republicans who don't want to do some of this?
James Comer
Oh, yeah. I mean, we got, we've got some guys that'll never be in a book called Profiles of Courage, if you know what I mean. I mean, you've got members of Congress that their number one priority, in my opinion, is self preservation. And that's unfortunate, because this is a once in a decade opportunity, maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity, where you've got a Republican president that actually wants to do something, a Republican House and a Republican Senate. So the reconciliation bill is vital because we don't have to get 60 votes in the Senate. Anything that can be put on that reconciliation bill needs to be put on it. It needs to be one bill it never needed. You know, it was pretty frustrating, me sitting back watching members of the Senate and a few members of the House, the ones that would be the one that you just described that didn't want to do anything, say, oh, well, let's do two bills. Let's do two bills. They do two bills because they don't want to have to vote because it's a tough vote. When you vote to eliminate somebody's position, someone in your district loses their job, they're going to be mad at you, they're not going to vote for you, more than likely, and their family's going to be mad at you. So at the end of the day, it's a tough job, but you signed up for it. You know, this is the job we signed up for.
Interviewee
Do you have enough of a margin, Republicans in the House to overcome that because it's so narrow?
James Comer
Well, there's one thing in our favor on that. If you ask me that, and you know, we've got a common Republican president, I would say, no, there's no way we'll pass it. But President Trump's so popular with the Republican base that I think that he can push it over the line because there's always going to be 10 or 12 members. I don't care what the bill is. They want to be hold out, they want to get on tv, they want to tweet. And what I've told Mike Johnson, just let Trump deal with it, do the whip count, put it on the floor for a vote, and if somebody votes against it, let them have to take a phone call from Trump. That's what happened. With Victoria Sparks. You know, that's what happened with Joni Ernst. I mean, I could start naming names of people that said they're not going to vote for President Trump's nominee for this or they're not going to vote for the blueprint for the reconciliation bill. Let President Trump talk to him. Because if you go against the mandate that President Trump received, now, there are things that a lot of us wouldn't do just because President Trump asked. But if President Trump asked to do something that he campaigned on, that he's been transparent about, that is clearly part of his agenda, that's a different deal. I think my people, I win. I won my last district, my last race, my last four races by 50 points. 75. 25. But if I start going against President Trump's agenda, people will be mad at me in my district. So I support the president's agenda, the agenda that he campaigned on. If something pops up, a grievance or something, that's a whole different scenario. But if he talks, he campaigned about eliminating the Department of Education. He campaigned on reducing the size of the government. That's his agenda. And I'm going to support it.
Cheryl Atkisson
You can see the interview on the next upcoming episode of full measure, Sunday, April 27th. You can find a list of stations and times by going to Cheryl Atkison.com and clicking the Full Measure tab. But if you happen to be listening to this after April 27th, no worries. You can find the Full Measure YouTube channel and we are posting the program there and the segments there pretty quickly after the program airs on TV on Sunday. So again, look for our YouTube channel for full Measure with Cheryl Akison. And you can also check out all of our stories at FullMeasure News. I hope you enjoyed the podcast and that if you did, you'll check out my other podcast, the Cheryl Akison Podcast. And I hope you consider subscribing to this one, sharing it with your friends and leaving us a great review. Also, Visit the Cheryl Atkison store by going to cherylakisson.com and clicking the store tab for some exclusive items made just for independent thinkers like you. With proceeds going to independent reporting causes. I have all kinds of cool products including some great stuff coming up for summer, like beach towels and great mugs that you can bring to the beach and so on. Great gift ideas there. And speaking of that, if you haven't already checked out my five star bestseller, Follow the Science How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures and Prevails. That's a great gift for somebody who cares about their health and would appreciate insight on the deep corruption inside our medical establishment, scientific journals, medical schools, and among our doctors without some of them even understanding or knowing that they're subject to so much corruption. But it tells us a lot about why we're in the situation we're in today with so many chronic health disorders exploded out of control, as our doctors and public health officials in many cases seem almost not to notice. That's Follow the science available everywhere. Do your own research, make up your own mind, think for yourself.
Full Measure After Hours: Rep. James Comer on Tackling Government Corruption
Release Date: April 24, 2025
Host: Sharyl Attkisson
Guest: Rep. James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee
In this episode of Full Measure After Hours, host Cheryl Atkinson engages in a comprehensive discussion with Rep. James Comer, the influential Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee from Kentucky. The conversation delves deep into the ongoing battle against government corruption, the resistance faced by the Trump administration, and the broader implications for federal governance.
Rep. James Comer opens the dialogue by contrasting the current Trump administration with its predecessor. He lauds President Trump's preparedness and strategic approach, particularly highlighting the effective use of executive orders.
"If you compare this Trump administration to the first one, he's clearly prepared... The progress that the president has made coming out of the gate is unprecedented."
(01:54)
Comer acknowledges the significant opposition from entrenched government agencies, labeling them as "left-wing activists" intent on obstructing the administration's agenda. Despite these challenges, he expresses optimism about the administration's ability to overcome internal battles.
"A lot of the executive orders... they're lawyered up and ready to go... I'm very satisfied with that."
(02:00)
A substantial portion of the interview focuses on the committee's efforts to release classified documents, specifically the JFK assassination files and the Epstein case files. Rep. Comer discusses the hurdles in accessing these documents, attributing the delays to bureaucratic resistance.
"Our task force is trying to reach out and question the bureaucrats, figure out which bureaucrat didn't comply with the orders."
(03:14)
He criticizes the Department of Justice under both Trump and Biden for withholding these files despite presidential directives, raising concerns about potential hidden agendas or misconduct.
"What were they doing? What were they... playing in this?"
(07:45)
Comer also touches upon the possibility of missing documents and questions the government's transparency and involvement in both the JFK and Epstein cases.
"Did the government, our government, play any role in evaluating that or spying on that?"
(08:37)
The conversation shifts to the treatment of whistleblowers within federal agencies. Rep. Comer highlights the committee's support for whistleblowers, emphasizing their critical role in uncovering governmental wrongdoing.
"If you blow the whistle and what you said is true, then you're going to be rewarded. At the very least, you're not going to be retaliated against."
(22:02)
He discusses the successful promotion of IRS whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler, ensuring they receive the recognition they deserve. Additionally, he alludes to ongoing efforts to support FBI whistleblowers, though specific details remain limited.
"We're going to play a big role in this reduction in force that is clearly in our jurisdiction."
(23:43)
One of the committee's top priorities, according to Rep. Comer, is the investigation into ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform. He raises concerns about the platform's ability to amass hundreds of millions of dollars through numerous small, potentially anonymous donations.
"ActBlue is very suspicious that they've raised this much money from this many people... if you disclose who the donors were."
(15:32)
Comer suspects foreign money infiltration and potential money laundering within ActBlue's operations, paralleling this investigation with the Biden family financial inquiries.
"We know there are people whose names were used in making donations that have already come out and said we weren't, we never made this donation."
(16:16)
He anticipates further revelations as key figures within ActBlue resign amidst the investigation, signaling possible wrongdoing.
"I think the top five people at ActBlue have all resigned in the last three weeks."
(17:07)
Addressing fiscal responsibility, Rep. Comer advocates for reducing the size of the federal government. He proposes eliminating or downsizing federal agencies like the Department of Education and FEMA, arguing that such moves would return power to the states and reduce unnecessary expenditures.
"We're going to play a big role in this reduction in force that is clearly in our jurisdiction."
(25:48)
Comer emphasizes the high cost of federal personnel, pensions, and benefits, contending that the current government size is unsustainable. He credits President Trump for initiating efforts to cut down bureaucratic layers, such as eliminating the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, which he views as redundant and financially burdensome.
"Deleting the DEI was an unnecessary added layer of bureaucracy... we can get rid of that DEI and save a lot of taxpayer dollars."
(28:22)
Rep. Comer candidly discusses the internal Republican challenges in passing significant reforms. He points out the reluctance of some party members to support audacious cuts due to fear of backlash from constituents.
"We've got some guys that'll never be in a book called Profiles of Courage... they've got to face their constituents."
(29:13)
Despite these hurdles, Comer remains confident in leveraging President Trump's popularity to push legislative agendas forward, advocating for unified support to successfully pass reconciliation bills that facilitate budgetary and structural changes.
"President Trump's so popular with the Republican base that I think that he can push it over the line."
(30:37)
The episode concludes with Rep. James Comer reinforcing the committee's commitment to transparency, accountability, and systemic reform. He underscores the importance of legislative support in overcoming deep-seated bureaucratic resistance and advancing the Trump administration's agenda to combat government corruption and inefficiency.
"If you signed up for this job, you have to do it... this is the job we signed up for."
(29:13)
Cheryl Atkinson wraps up by directing listeners to future episodes and additional resources, encouraging continued engagement with the issues discussed.
Notable Quotes:
Rep. James Comer: "The progress that the president has made coming out of the gate is unprecedented."
(01:54)
Rep. James Comer: "If you blow the whistle and what you said is true, then you're going to be rewarded."
(22:02)
Rep. James Comer: "ActBlue is very suspicious that they've raised this much money from this many people."
(15:32)
Rep. James Comer: "Deleting the DEI was an unnecessary added layer of bureaucracy... we can get rid of that DEI and save a lot of taxpayer dollars."
(28:22)
Rep. James Comer: "President Trump's so popular with the Republican base that I think that he can push it over the line."
(30:37)
This detailed summary encapsulates the core discussions and insights shared during the Full Measure After Hours episode featuring Rep. James Comer. By addressing critical issues such as government corruption, whistleblower protection, and fiscal reforms, the conversation offers listeners a comprehensive understanding of the current political landscape and the challenges faced by the Trump administration in implementing its agenda.