← Pod Force One
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- [00:00]
James Comer
The overwhelming majority of employees at the top, at the top are left wing activists. And that's a problem that I have, especially with Democrat governors, Democrat mayors. It's federal money, so what does it matter? You know, that's the attitude. And he's trashing President Trump. Doesn't matter what you know. I mean, again, it's okay to disagree with the president, but he's trashed him with everything.
- [00:25]
Miranda Devine
Welcome to Pod Force One. Chairman James Comer, you run the Oversight Committee. All important way of trying to hold the various wrongdoers who tried to stage a coup against Donald Trump and have persecuted his allies for the past decade. Welcome and tell us what hope do we have? To lots of people ask me, when is someone going to go to jail? What hope do we have that there is going to be accountability soon?
- [01:00]
James Comer
Yeah. And that's my biggest frustration thus far in the first year and half of the, of the new Trump administration is that we haven't been holding people accountable. The deep state abuses, just fraudulent spending of taxpayer dollars. But I think in the last two weeks we've seen a huge increase in activity. And I have to brag on Todd Blanche over the last two weeks, he's really increased the effort to try to hold people accountable. Not just deep state actors who clearly weaponize the government to go after Donald Trump, to collude with the media to create false narratives about Russia and other things, but also what you're seeing in Minnesota and California with fraudulent tax dollar schemes. There were people prosecuted in Minnesota for the daycare, the leering center daycare, and all the welfare schemes that we're seeing in Minnesota. You're about to see some more in California. We also have other ongoing investigations on Medicaid fraud in other states. So as we get more information, we're going to do criminal referrals and pass that information on to the Department of Justice. The thing I have to remind everybody watching is Congress can only investigate. We can't prosecute. We can't go and arrest anyone. I've heard people say that before on, on Twitter. And that's not a thing. The Sergeant at Armed or whatever. That's, that's not a thing. We, we do investigations and mostly in the House Oversight Committee, but occasionally in the Judiciary Committee led by Jim Jordan and in the Intelligence Committee Committee led now by Rick Crawford. But we do the investigations and we turn them over to the Department Justice. I have more confidence today in the Department of Justice holding people accountable than I did a month ago.
- [02:45]
Miranda Devine
Well, that's great. And so you're getting full cooperation from the DOJ and the FBI when you want documents or you want people to
- [02:54]
James Comer
testify, we get better cooperation than we did under Merrick Garland. I'll put it like that. I wouldn't say that I'm fully satisfied with the cooperation from the Department of Justice on some of our investigations, that it's better than it was, but there's still room for improvement.
- [03:11]
Miranda Devine
Yeah, it's a frequent refrain that I hear from people like Senator Johnson, Senator Grassley, who have been very effective, as you have, in uncovering wrongdoing. But there's still. Ron Johnson has even talked about being stonewalled when he's tried to get documents. Is that because there are holdovers within the Department of Justice, within the FBI, who are sort of establishment figures who are trying to protect the deep state or protect their turf?
- [03:45]
James Comer
Deep state bureaucrats. If you look at all the government agencies, whether it's the Department of Agriculture, whether it's the epa, whether it's the Department of Energy, and especially the intelligence agencies, the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the overwhelming majority of employees at the top, at the top are left wing activists. They hate Donald Trump, they hate Republicans, they hate transparency. They, they don't want anyone invading on their turf. They had decades of abusing power and they will not cooperate with Congress even though by law they're supposed to. And what you have to know when you're, when you're a president coming in and when you're Attorney General or head of the FBI or head of the CIA, you have to know this coming in. And you can't trust a lot of these people. You have to have some people with some institutional knowledge that, that are fair and balanced and that want to do the right thing and want to be transparent. So when you bring in outsiders to run these agencies, you, they have to have. And then I think that was a struggle that Elon Musk had, certainly a struggle some other cabinet secrets have had. You've got to have someone with some institutional knowledge that can help you navigate that deep state bureaucracy. Because I don't think a lot of the Cabinet secretaries are aware of how much of an obstacle their own agencies are in providing information to members of Congress like Ron Johnson or me or Jim Jordan who are trying to do the right thing.
- [05:20]
Miranda Devine
Yeah. What, how can you get around it? Do you, have you learned any tricks of the trade that might assist those department heads to figure out and those Cabinet secretaries to figure out? How do they bring those deep staters to heal? Is it just a matter of Sorting them out and firing them. Are there enough, you know, fair and balanced people that you can find to bring in?
- [05:46]
James Comer
I think so. I hope so. But yes. Growing up in, in my conservative part of the world, I don't meet many young people that say, I want to work for the government. Well, a lot of liberals. That's the, that's a good thing. Yeah, I want to work for government. I want to be a public servant or whatever, however they want to describe it. And you just by nature, you have an overwhelming number of, of liberal activists that have gone to the work of these government agencies. Again, whether it's the Department of Ag or the department, you know, the EPA or the FBI. That's not to say they all are, but the majority are, especially the ones that make it to the top. And I've always felt like if you, if you could fire one or two of the ones that are protected, you have in government a thing called civil service. Or in Kentucky, in state government, we call it merit, and teachers in public education call it tenure. Once you work for so many months or years, you get locked in. It's very difficult to fire a government employee, but it can be done. You just have to have all your eyes dotted and T's crossed. You can't go in and fire them all. That was one of the things Doge tried to do. And, you know, unfortunately, you can't do that. I wish you could, but you can fire a few people and set an example. But, and I don't know that that that's been done. You got to have it ready to go on day one. You've got to have. I'm all about bringing in an outsider to run an agency, but you better have somebody that, that's worked there or has some kind of internal knowledge that can help you and target that, that top person, the big fat cat in that agency and get rid of it. Shouldn't be any trouble at the Department of Justice or at the FBI or the CIA or any of these other agencies.
- [07:30]
Miranda Devine
Now, I want to talk to you about the fraud in Minnesota that you uncovered, particularly the Somali gangs. But beforehand I wanted to talk to you about Hunter Biden, because you, more than anyone else in Congress, are responsible for bringing out a lot of the documented influence peddling by the Biden family, tracing it to Joe Biden, following the money trail laboriously. And your final report and the book that you wrote about it are really required reading on this topic. But he seems to now be wanting to be more notor. He's doing the rounds the podcast circuit. And, you know, uncritically, no one's pushing back on his rewriting of history to cast himself as a victim.
- [08:22]
James Comer
I mean, you know, when, when the, when the Democrats or media, they talk about, well, Trump families profiting or whatever, you know what Trump's businesses are, you know what Trump's businesses are, you know, what the family's involved in. They have real estate, they have casinos, they, they have, you know, crypto now. And whether you like it or not, you know what business they're in. If you ask Donald Trump, did you make a million dollars or half of a half a billion dollars on this deal, he'll say, yeah, yeah, we did it. It's a great company. It's the best. You know, it was a good deal for everybody that, whether you like that or not, that, that they're being transparent and that's legal. You tell what Hunter Biden did, and you know better than anyone, Miranda, he lied to this day about whether or not he took money from China. Joe Biden was right in the mix of it, they lied. You, you know, Bob Alinsky and all the associates of the Bidens, they said it was a scheme, it was, it was bribery, it was, you know, there was never a legitimate business there to this day that the Bidens have never been held accountable for that. And we gave criminal referrals. So the Department of Justice has criminal referrals on Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, but they haven't done anything about it. I'm pretty disappointed that I've said that in a lot of, a lot of interviews. But they need to read your book and my book and go back and read the final report on the Oversight Committee, because we, we got their personal checking accounts and the bank accounts from all those LLC that we could find. And they never have explained how all this foreign money got in, you know, was deposited in their account. They didn't have a business. He didn't own any real estate. He didn't own, you know, didn't have any employees, didn't do, provide any services. So, you know, it's a huge scandal and it's, it appears he's going to be allowed to get away with it, which is criminal in itself.
- [10:15]
Miranda Devine
Yeah, I think a lot of Americans will be absolutely furious and flabbergasted about that. And I mean, you've made criminal referrals. Did Joe Biden's pardon of his family, the preemptive pardon that goes back, right, to 2014, 11 years to 2014, which was the beginning of the Burisma grift. Does that protect them?
- [10:40]
James Comer
I don't think so. We did an investigation of the pardons, too, and we suggested to the Department of Justice that they declare the pardons null and void. And Trump tweeted that out, but then nobody actually followed through and did anything about it. So there's a strong case for a lot of the, the pardons being kicked out, especially with the other Biden family members. Now, Joe Biden signed, or somebody signed. Hunter Biden's pardon could have been under Biden, I don't know. But it wasn't the auto pen. That was the only one that wasn't signed with the auto pan. Everybody else's was. Was signed with the auto pen. But, you know, I don't. I would hate to argue in court that a president who happens to be the father of a criminal can pardon you for 10 years for anything and everything. I mean, that's. I don't know how that would hold up in court. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty frustrated that, that nothing's happened to Biden. And to watch him go on TV circuit and play the victim card, it's pretty disgusting. Because, you know, my investigation didn't get into the really bad stuff on the Internet. You know, the stuff I think you focused a lot on, which was, you know, accurate. We just focused on the money because that's pretty much all we were set up to do on the oversight, and we had a narrow focus on were you taking money from foreign governments? Which I think is the perfect thing for the House Oversight Committee to investigate. Were you taking money from foreign governments? The answer is yes. And what did you provide? What did you provide them in return? They never could say. They still deny that they did it, even though the money was deposited. So clearly, Jim Biden and Hunter Biden lied in their deposition, which is a felony, and that's why the criminal referrals were issued. Hey, Bill O'Reilly here. Please check out my new interview series. We'll do it live. Each Thursday, I sit down with the most influential people in America. We're a no spin chat, no script. Anything could happen. You can find. We'll do it live on BillOriley.com YouTube or wherever you download your podcast.
- [12:56]
Mike Slater
Hey, this is Mike Slater. I have a podcast called Politics by Faith. I would love for you to listen. We take the news of the day and we run it through the Bible. What does the Bible have to say about this? Because there's nothing new under the sun. Read the headlines. Everything's all crazy. World's coming to an end. It's all in the Bible. And after every episode, hopefully you leave with a, a proper perspective and a biblical piece. Please join us wherever you listen to podcasts and we also have a YouTube page as well. YouTube.com politicsbyfaith
- [13:28]
Miranda Devine
so, you know, you mentioned the auto pen and Anthony Fauci is one of those who was again given a preemptive pardon by Joe Biden on his last day in office. And you know, for what, and so I guess I know Senator Paul, Senator Rand Paul has been pursuing Fauci for what he says is lying perjury in his testimony on various things like the COVID up using private emails with his, you know, factotium David Morens, who's just been indicted and covering up the fact of sending money to the Wuhan lab and so on. And I'm just wondering, do you think that the auto pen pardons are fair game to be declared null and void, to go to court and do that? And as you say, you've called for it. Donald Trump has called for it. It seems like not that difficult a case to make if you've got so many of these pardons being done by auto pen with no evidence that Joe Biden, you know, wanted it to happen. I mean, if he wanted it to happen, why didn't he sign it himself?
- [14:49]
James Comer
We did about 10 depositions with the highest level people in the Biden circle, anyone that had access to the auto pin. The investigation is complete. We did it. We spent a lot of time on it. On this auto pin investigation, we think we've laid out a case that the doj, you know, that the president can, can declare these null and void. And if someone sues that the evidence from all these hours and hours of depositions and transcribed interviews we did is more than enough evidence to prove that Joe Biden wasn't the one operating the auto pen. Didn't even, you know, there was no, there were never any meetings. There was nothing on the calendar where he ever discussed with anyone whether or not to pardon Dr. Fauci or all the other people that were, that were pardoned. Now, the Constitution doesn't say the president's staff can pardon people. It says the president has to pardon. There's no evidence that the president was involved whatsoever in any conversations, any meetings. They couldn't detail anything. So the evidence is, is already there. And it's, it's disappointing that, that no one's taking that up because we also did criminal referrals on Dr. Fauci, the ones that Rand Paul talks about were done in our committee. It was actually a select committee of under oversight that was focused on Covid. And you know, they had a lot of hours and hours of testimony and depositions with boring people and scientists and they, they finally, you know, we got evidence that Dr. Fauci lied when he testified to Congress. So I agree with Rand's frustration that, you know, the statute of limitations is nearing and nothing's been done. So I don't know why there wasn't an effort to go after Dr. Fauci because I can't think of a single person that's done more harm than to our country than, than Dr. Fauci. You know, the, his beloved public health. He's done more to hurt the credibility of public health than anyone. You know, I mean, there's people today that aren't getting vaccinated that maybe should, maybe shouldn't, I don't know. But the, it's down because they have no confidence in the government because of, because of the decision Dr. Fauci made, which was supposed to be. Have the opposite effect and you know, just lying about the gain of function research and the using tax dollars to do it and telling people to destroy emails. I mean, there's a lot of evidence out there that would be an easy slammed up case for a, a good conservative prosecutor that wants to do the right thing.
- [17:30]
Miranda Devine
Do you think that a way around it would be to have a special commission on Covid and go through
- [17:41]
James Comer
all
- [17:41]
Miranda Devine
of that, you know, the Fauci lies, the gain of function research, who was involved in the funding of the Wuhan lab, the Lancet article, the lies that were told about, you know, that it came from a wet market that we know Fauci's fingerprints were all over. Is that worth doing? Or do you think there's just a feeling in this country that that was a really bad period and we just want to forget about it and get on with life? Or do you think it's important to learn those lessons so that the next time it happens we don't fall into the same traps?
- [18:15]
James Comer
I want to see Dr. Fauci held accountable, but I do think a lot of Americans have, have moved on. I honestly thought Rand Paul would do, you know, because he has always been the Dr. Fauci critic. I thought his committee in the Senate would, would do more on that. One thing I'm finding out as we speak and I have a deposition going on right now with one of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein is that the longer you go in investigating something that the Longer, the more time that slaps, the harder it is to get information. And I think that, you know, we did a lot of that stuff on the subcommittee. It didn't get a lot of press because the media, the media only cared about the coronavirus when Donald Trump was. Yes, they kind of lost. You know, if you remember, when, when, when Biden got elected, they quit putting the death counter on CNN and all the different government agencies because they are all the different liberal networks because, you know, they didn't want to talk about it then. But, you know, I think there's so much more from COVID I think that a significant number of deaths that were blamed for Covid didn't have anything to do with COVID because the government messed up in so many ways. The government was paying hospitals more for a COVID death, you know, when they had all this Covid money. So if you had a COVID death, they would give you, you know, a significant amount of money to, I guess, dispose of the, of the, you know, process the body and take it to the funeral home and you make sure that the medical workers weren't infected and you know, all the precautions that had to be dealt with there. But you would see like in my local newspaper, there'd be 98 year old lady passed away. She died of COVID Well, are you sure it was Covid? Could it have been old age? Could it have been the flu? You know, and there wasn't any, no one died, no one had the flu, you know, during COVID And there were grants for Covid shots, Covid tests. And what you're finding in Minnesota, what we're finding Minnesota, we're finding in California, the more money you give for government programs, whether it be for autism or if you put a bunch of money in for mental health, you put a bunch of money in for drug rehabilitation in Medicaid, then lo and behold, the numbers of people with autism just skyrockets. The number of people on drugs skyrockets, the number, you know, the number of people that have mental health issues skyrocket. So I think the government made a lot of mistakes during COVID Everyone agrees with that. But I think these mistakes are still being replicated in other areas. You know, anytime there's a terrible school shooting, everybody's solution, you know, the Democrats are to ban guns altogether, but Republicans come back and say, oh, we need mental health, we got a mental health problem. Well, they dump a bunch of money in mental health. And you've got these, these providers, a lot of them that, that are in my Opinion fraudulent like the learning centers in Minnesota and the hospice places in California. So we're trying to get a handle that on the Oversight Committee. But again, if you don't have people locked up, then the criminals are going to continue to. To defraud the government.
- [21:35]
Miranda Devine
So let's go to Minnesota. You've uncovered some absolutely bombshell evidence of the systematic fraud and particularly by these Somali gangs and who were given pretty much the green light by the governor, Tim Waltz, by Keith Ellison, the Democrat Attorney general. And do you know why they were turning a blind eye? What? How did the Democrats in Minnesota benefit?
- [22:07]
James Comer
The Democrats benefited because that was a huge Democrat voting block. That's how Minnesota stayed blue when a lot of the other states in the Midwest, all the surrounding states went. Went red. This was how Tim Waltz stayed in power. This is how Keith Ellison, the Attorney General, stayed in power. And I say this based on the testimony that we did. We do. We get our substantive work done on the Oversight Committee in depositions and transcribed interview. We don't in committee hearings. Committee hearings are, you know, theater, unfortunately for show. And everybody gets mad when they. When we have a committee hearing because people yell and scream and it's just not a very productive way to do an investigation. We had the whistleblowers come in. These were state employees in Minnesota. They came in, many of them said that they had warned Tim Waltz and Keith Ellison about the fraud for years, but they didn't want to do anything about it. And we asked why, they said because that's a big voting block. They donate a lot of money and they turn out in droves to vote for the Democrat Party. So that's why they didn't do anything. Right.
- [23:11]
Miranda Devine
And of course they do that because they are allowed to continue the fraud. And it's just a small, you know, tax, I guess, to the Democrat Party from the billions that they were ripping off the American taxpayer, the federal government, I guess. So there was no oversight because the state government doesn't care. Same in California because this is mostly federal money, isn't it?
- [23:36]
James Comer
That's right. And you're exactly right. And that's a problem that I have especially with Democrat governors, Democrat mayors. It's federal money, so what does it matter? You know, that's the attitude, I think that's attitude of our governor in Kentucky, Democrat governor for sure. What does it matter? This is federal money. Stay. Don't rock the boat. If you start messing with our federal money, then, then we could get cut and then they get all the liberals all clutching their pearls and, and going crazy. And all the government employees start putting bad comments on our Facebook, oh, you're gonna, I'm gonna lose my job or whatever. And you know, I mean the taxpayer who represents the taxpayers here, that's what I think about is the taxpayers that have to pay the bill for all this fraud. I mean it, it is a massive amount of. But I'll say this, they're starting to prosecute people in Minnesota and that's going to set an example for that Somali crime ring up there. You start sending people to jail and, and I do think Ilian Omar is in a lot of trouble. You've got a situation there where you look at some of the earmarks she requested for her district were for some of those fraudulent schemes. So she's got that big question mark on how her net worth jumped up to, to, you know, at least 6 million and then went back down to zero over a one year period. And she's never really answered that other than saying she made a mistake. I, it's hard to make a mistake. You have to, you have to review it and, and submit it again. You submit it then, then it all pops up again and you have to look, they, they've designed that software where you put your financial disclosure in. I do the same thing to where you have to look at it and you make triple sure it's right. I don't know how she would miss three extra zeros on, or two extra zeros on something. Three extra zeros on something. I mean it's, it's, it's not, not even believable.
- [25:32]
Miranda Devine
So are you saying that Ilhan Omar, the congressman, congresswoman from Minnesota, that she was getting federal money and feeding it into these corrupt Somali networks, her cronies?
- [25:48]
James Comer
I think one of the projects she requested was a, proved to be a fraudulent Somali scheme. Now there's no evidence that she benefited from it.
- [25:57]
Miranda Devine
Was that the feeding the future?
- [25:59]
James Comer
Yes, well, it was something, something involved in that. Now we all asked for community development projects. They used to call them earmarks. They call them community development projects. What I asked for in Kentucky are, you know, for water, water lines, sewer lines, you know, things like that, that aren't, aren't real sexy requests, but they're needed in the district and hard, hard to pay for. So that, that's, that's what they're supposed to be. When the Republicans took over Congress, they put in, put these community development projects back in, but we put guardrails on them so there wouldn't be bridges to NowHere and the LGBTQ museums and all the crazy stuff that the left wing liberals want and whatever, whatever. One of the things that she submitted they caught on the staff and it wasn't. Was a legitimate project.
- [26:52]
Miranda Devine
And what about the. You've done an investigation, I think also into her alleged marriage fraud, immigration fraud, marrying her brother. There's certainly evidence to suggest that that did happen. And I myself did a story a few years ago where an independent group had got some DNA from her brother and found that it was a perfect match, or as perfect as DNA is with the laroma. And we heard the other day, I think it was J.D. vance mentioned that there was an issue there with the Alanoma and she was being investigated. So do you know what's going on there?
- [27:35]
James Comer
I do know she's being investigated and that's probably all that I can say. It's not us, it's the Department of Justice, so. And again, this Department of Justice in the last month is, has significantly increased their activity, which is good.
- [27:51]
Miranda Devine
So what else have you uncovered in fraud? I think you've been looking at California.
- [27:55]
James Comer
Yeah. California Hospice. And as a result, we've gotten 500 hospice providers kicked off the hospice roll. These were phony fraudulent entities that were receiving taxpayer dollars. 5 Over 500 have been kicked off the roll. So no one's been prosecuted yet, but we've stopped the bleeding, which is a win. You know, anytime you get a win in the congressional investigation business, you, you take it. So hopefully we can, we can set some examples there. But getting a really good handle on the fraud in, in Los Angeles and it was, it was rampant. Gavin Newsom was nowhere to be found. You know, I don't know how you could have so much money, so much of the national hospice budget going into one county, which it's a big county, but one county without someone in Washington or someone in Sacramento noticing it. But that's, I guess, how government operates, unfortunately.
- [29:01]
Miranda Devine
Well, and I suppose that's how the Democrat machine funds itself all over the country.
- [29:06]
James Comer
Yeah, absolutely.
- [29:08]
Miranda Devine
And when they get a Democrat president in, I guess they pull down the guardrails and it's just a free for all. And I mean the thing that it's not just that taxpayers are being ripped off, which is bad enough, but it's also that these programs are put in place for genuinely needy people. And then when they want help, they can't get it because there's no money. It's all been taken by the fraudsters.
- [29:33]
James Comer
Autism. I mean, who doesn't want to help autistic children? Hospice, that's the, that's the worst time in anyone's life, obviously. I mean, it's the worst time in family. Hospice helps families in their deepest, darkest hours. I don't, I've never heard anybody trash the hospice program, but there were fraudsters coming in, signing up online, creating ups, fake addresses and, and, you know, billing Medicare. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. So we've just got a huge fraud issue. I think. Miranda, in my opinion, it all escalated after Covid. During COVID you had all these government employees that weren't coming into work. There was this effort to push money out the door to keep the economy from crashing. The fraudsters started multiplying and just started applying for every PPP loan. That was like the worst government program in history, PPP loan. You know, they started getting to be licensed somehow as vendors for Medicare and Medicaid. And as, as, even after Covid ended, you had Joe Biden as president. A lot of Democrat governors to stay on the good side of the government employees. Guess what? They like working from home better than coming to work every day. So they let these government employees work from home and the fraudsters realize it. So the fraud kept escalating because there really wasn't anyone in the office to catch the fraud.
- [31:05]
Miranda Devine
Every major story has a version the news gives you and then a version that's actually true. If you're a critical thinker, if you're somebody who's not tribal, if you're somebody who just wants the facts so you can make your own decisions, Keeping It Real with Jillian Michaels is the show for you. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everyone. Miranda Devine here. If you want unapologetic conservative coverage from outside the Beltway, check out the Tony Kinnett cast from the Daily Signal. Every weeknight at 7pm Eastern, Tony brings a common sense Hoosier perspective to the biggest stories of the day with reporting, analysis, and interviews that actually explain what Washington's decisions mean for your life. In his signature snarky style, if Pod Force One gets you the conversation straight from the people in power, Tony breaks down exactly what it means for you and the rest of the country. You can watch the Tony Kinnit cast live on the Daily Signals YouTube channel or listen on your favourite podcast app. Just search the Tony Kinnit cast and subscribe now. The other sort of hot button issue that you've been investigating, of course, is Jeffrey Epstein, and that's become a real political hot potato that the Democrats have been trying to weaponize against Donald Trump, tell us what you found. And if you agree with, you know, with the evidence that you've uncovered, with my contention or supposition that this is really another one, what Trump says is a hoax, because it's all about getting. I'm not saying that they weren't genuine victims of Jeffrey Epstein, but trying to pin it on Donald Trump has just gone nowhere. And, you know, tell me about that. Actually, before we get there, I just wanted to ask you about Thomas Massie because it reminded me of his demise politically in the primary there. And I mean, he made Epstein his sort of emblematic issue. He had been caring about an important thing I think everyone cares about, which is government debt. And suddenly he veered onto the Epstein issue and he was really being very accusatory of the president. He was indistinguishable from Democrats. Do you think that was part of the reason that he's been turfed out?
- [33:38]
James Comer
Yeah, I mean, it, it looked like Thomas. To the people in Kentucky that I know that live in that district, we all have disagreements with President Trump. There's, there's not a policy that he has that I don't think some person would have issues with either, you know, from tariffs to Iran or whatever. But at the end of the day, we in Kentucky, we want to support the president. We want to support the president's agenda. Now, that doesn't mean we have to have blind loyalty. That doesn't mean we can't be critical. That doesn't mean we don't vote against him every now and then. But for the most part, we support an America first agenda, which would, which is what President Trump's doing. He's demonstrated leadership to secure the border. He's restored our credibility on the international stage. He's trying to get to rein in the deep state. These are things that every conservative like Thomas Massey and conservative voters in Kentucky want. And we know how bad it is when Joe Biden's president or when Obama's president or when the next Democrats going to be president. So when, when they see Thomas Macy, though, he's, he's on these little networks and he's trashing President Trump. Doesn't matter what, you know, I mean, again, it's okay to disagree, agree with the president, but he's trashed him on everything. And then this Epstein stuff, they said all these accusations of pedophile protector and all that, well, where's the evidence? You know, I have subpoenaed the estate, we've subpoenaed the Department of Justice, we've Got, you know, victims doing interviews as we. As we speak. And a lot of the stuff that, that's out there in the. In the media, I'm not saying didn't happen. I'm just saying there's no evidence that it happened. Now, I'm hoping that as we bring more of the victims in, we can get some more substantive information. But I think when you talk about the hoax, it. The. Epstein was not a hoax. He was a bad person. He and Julian Maxwell, who should not get a part. Okay, Maxwell does not need a pardon. They are terrible people, and they lied to these girls and they did the terrible, unspeakable things. The hoax is that Trump was involved in it in some way or Bill Clinton. Neither one of them. Neither one of them. I have not found any evidence that either one of them had anything other than a relationship with Epstein. Where, you know, if Epstein, he. He only hung out with Richard. Powerful people, you know, I don't know. And they all said he was a fraud and a con artist and all this. He's a terrible person. So I think the media mischaracterizes what Trump says. I don't think Trump meant the whole Epstein thing was with a hoax. I think what he meant was trying to tie him in with. It was like trying to tie him in with Russia, collusion and all that, which we all know was. Was not true.
- [36:21]
Miranda Devine
Is there any evidence that you found that Epstein was working for an intelligence service, whether it be Mossad or CIA or someone else?
- [36:30]
James Comer
We haven't found it, but a lot of us suspect it. You know, it's. Again, when. When all your main witnesses are dead and, you know, many of these crimes were committed decades ago, it's very hard to put the stuff together. But we're trying to do that and we're doing it in a transparent way. And sometimes it's bipartisan, sometimes it's not. You know, the Democrats sole focus is to try to somehow tie this in with Donald Trump, and they fail every day in doing that. But I do think that the government failed these women. And it's just baffling to me when we bring in Jeffrey Epstein's accountant and his lawyer, that they were never interviewed by anyone in the Department of Justice, ever. We bring in the Jeffrey Epstein's assistant. She said she never talked to anyone, not a single investigator, even though her name was in the DOJ files as a coconspirator. You know, just. Just things like that that make no sense to me, that you wonder, was he being protected by someone, you know, and I. I don't know. It's. We're trying to answer that question, but thus far, I don't think we've been able to.
- [37:43]
Miranda Devine
So is that what makes you think that he might have worked for an intelligence service, that. That he seemed to have this aura of protection,
- [37:52]
James Comer
just the whole thing. It's just hard to. Hard to understand how he was able to. To get in with all these rich and powerful people, to accumulate all this wealth. And then the. Never, you know, the prosecutions, all the main witnesses were never interviewed. I mean, it. I don't even understand that. So, I don't know.
- [38:16]
Miranda Devine
And the sweetheart plea deal, of course, that he got in Florida just seems to be the root of all evil.
- [38:22]
James Comer
Yeah, yeah, it was a bad deal. I've already said that publicly. It was a bad deal. And we brought in Alex Acosta, who was the U.S. attorney at the time, and grilled him in a bipartisan way. And, you know, he admits that there were. There were mistakes there, but. And I'm not going to. I mean, I could tell you what he said in his defense, but I'm not. I'm not going to say it because I don't even want to see me saying that on tv.
- [38:46]
Miranda Devine
Didn't Alex Acosta say that he was told that Epstein was protected by the CIA and therefore kind of go easy on him?
- [38:59]
James Comer
He said that, but then he kind of walked it back during the. During the deposition. So I don't know. It's pretty murky there that that statement had been said before, but, you know, he has all the characteristics of someone that would have been an asset. Now, what we. And we are try. We've talked to FBI, CIA. Thus far, we haven't been able to.
- [39:24]
Miranda Devine
And are the CIA and the FBI forthcoming with documents and requests from you?
- [39:32]
James Comer
They take my phone calls. That's. That's about all I can say. You know, they're. They're better than they have been in the past. I like Cash Patel, and I like John Radcliffe. I think they're good people doing a good job.
- [39:45]
Miranda Devine
And ultimately, do you think that you will come to a conclusion about who Epstein was and. And the extent of the damage?
- [39:56]
James Comer
I hope so, and I hope that we can get some criminal referrals. It's been hard getting names. Everybody's making conspiracy theories, but, you know, we've got to have names. If you give me names of people that. That abused and we can verify that, then we're going to do everything in our ability to see that they're held accountable. And that's that's kind of what Todd Blanchard said at the Attorney General's office. He hasn't said the case is closed. The media said that if he's. If. If new information arises, then the way I've interpreted what he said, they will prosecute people. So we're trying to find new information. But one thing I can say with confidence, the government, and this spans four or five presidential administrations, they failed these victims. They did a terrible job. Now, was it because he was an agent, or was it because he just knew the rich and powerful people, or was it because he had the most expensive lawyers? I don't know. Could be any of those three. But he got away with things that nobody else would have gotten away with. And then when he was on work release, he was still abusing girls. That's what that. Probably the worst part of the whole story is. He was on work release and still abusing these women, which says a lot about the judicial, you know, the. The. The system down in Florida at that time.
- [41:17]
Miranda Devine
How many victims do you think there were in total? Underage girls? And also, when you say you're looking to. For criminal referrals, are you talking about men who Epstein and Maxwell might have trafficked these girls to as sort of sexual slaves?
- [41:39]
James Comer
Anything, Any. Any crimes? We do the criminal referrals now. The. The survivor victim, whatever you want to describe it Today, she was 21 when she met Epstein. We're still trying to find evidence of the human trafficking in the. In the underage girl. They were young girls, there's no question. But thus far, most of the victims that we've spoken with were like 18 to 21. So we're trying to find the younger ones because that's what he was prosecuted for in Palm beach was an underage girl. That was 2007 or something. So we're trying to find, was there a human trafficking ring, were there, which men were abusing these girls, and how did that work? Did you know Epstein? What did he say to these girls? So we're bringing in the victims and survivors now, and I think. I think they're going to be a lot more valuable witnesses than the. The rich and powerful men that we've been bringing in who can't recall anything. And the names that they recall just happened to be dead. So.
- [42:49]
Miranda Devine
And do you think that when Epstein was charged and went to jail over these underage girls that he was abusing in Florida, do you think that after that he changed his behavior and moved his interests to girls who were at least legal, over 18?
- [43:09]
James Comer
That the evidence would suggest that's a possibility. I don't want to say that he didn't, because he's a terrible person. He was a creep. So I would say if he could get. If he, you know, could have had the opportunity, he would have done it. He was that terrible, terrible person. But it does look like from that point on, from 2010 until he was arrested again, or that next decade, that they were at least 18, which is still despicable because he was an old, you know, old man.
- [43:43]
Miranda Devine
I'd like to just go back to your background, let people understand a little bit about where you're from. I know when we were working together and you were doing that great work on the Hunter Biden investigation, that we talked a little bit about your hometown in Kentucky and how you started off as a farmer. So tell us about your family in that area of Kentucky, where. Where you're from and what the town is like.
- [44:09]
James Comer
Great. Yeah. I'm from small town on the western foothills of Appalachia in Southern Kentucky. My dad was a dentist. My granddad was in the construction business. They owned a farm, and they were also involved with a little community bank. So I wanted to be in business, but I wanted my business to be agriculture. So I, you know, started farming when I got out of college and buying more land and I flipped farms. That was kind of my deal. I'm not a real estate guy or real estate developer, but I would buy land and fix it up and sell it and kind of do like, what people do on homes. I did on farms and was involved with a bank for many years there, and then got involved in the state legislature. I was elected when I was 28 to the Kentucky State House, served 11 years, and I was elected statewide commissioner of Agriculture, which is a statewide constitutional office in Kentucky for four years. And now I've been in Congress for 10 years. I still own my farms, but I just leased them out now. So according to the irs, there are two types of farmers, an active farmer or a passive farmer. And I'm apparently a passive farmer now.
- [45:18]
Miranda Devine
And why did you decide to go into politics at such a young age?
- [45:22]
James Comer
It's what I always wanted to do. Both my grandfathers were chairman of the Republican parties in neighboring counties, and I just grew up interested. I was the kid that read the newspaper and watched CNN Crossfire when I was little and just always showed up in town when the politicians would come into town and speak of the courthouse steps. I was always fascinated by that. And when I was in college, I volunteered in campaigns and just always had an interest and it's what I always wanted to do.
- [45:53]
Miranda Devine
And I know that everybody in your town knows you, knows your family, has great respect for them. And when the sort of Biden forces, those sort of shadowy, well funded oppo research people got stuck in to try and attack you and undermine you, they were knocking on doors all around town. They put up billboards smearing you. Did any of that have any effect on your neighbors and how they viewed you?
- [46:24]
James Comer
We had an election this week and I got, I had three opponents and I got 94% of the vote in my hometown, which is, you know, that's pretty good in a small town where everybody knows everybody. A lot of, some of this was funded by Dan Goldman, who I just saw a poll today, 30 points down in a primary in New York. Hopefully that, that hold, he should have spent his money on himself instead of me. But, but they had, they had opposition research people knocking on doors, harassing people going in businesses. They had these video trucks like you see in Las Vegas. We don't, we've never seen one before since in Monroe county, where I'm from. And they were at ad, like running TV ads on the, on the, like a movie screen going up and down the road and people were calling the police. The sheriff pulled him over and asked the lady said, what are you doing? I'm exercising my constitutional rights. He said, if I were you, I'd exercise them somewhere else. He said, because I can't protect you for, you know, I'm not going to follow you around all day, but people are getting real mad at you. And she, she put it in reverse and headed back to Lexington, Kentucky, where she came from. So that's, that's the kind of town I live in where people get your backs and you know, it's a Trump country down there. People support the President and want to see America first agenda.
- [47:41]
Miranda Devine
How is Donald Trump? I mean, we see his national polling has slumped because I guess gas prices due to the Iran war. What's the attitude in your very Trump district?
- [47:55]
James Comer
They still support the President. They want me to work with the President. They, they want me to make sure the President knows the tariffs on soybeans aren't real good, the tariffs on Bourbons not real good. They want me to know they're not crazy about, you know, Iran. They understand, you know, we, we need to protect, protect the world and make sure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. But they don't like their gas prices, you know, being high as a result of Iran but other than that, they, they appreciate the president secured the border. They appreciate he's put in good people in his cabinet that are trying to do the right thing. And, and, you know, they, they want us to work together. And hopefully that's what, that's what's going on, because I think the president's still very popular in my district.
- [48:40]
Miranda Devine
Do you get the impression that the Iran war will be over and gas prices might come, start coming back to normal before the midterms in time for the midterms. How do you feel about the midterms? I guess from your party's point of view?
- [48:58]
James Comer
I feel better about the midterms than a lot of people. You know, the media always says we're going to lose, and we usually squeak it out. The generic polls, which I'm not a big fan of, always say the Democrats are going to get more votes than Republicans. I think candidates matter. It looks like we have good candidates. And the Democrat, you know, for all the faults you and I have talked about our frustration that enough people aren't being held accountable. That's what Republicans are mad over. You know, enough people aren't being held accountable. And, you know, the economy, we've got to get inflation up. Well, look at the Democrats. The Democrats created the inflation with COVID and just spending money, all this stimulus money. The Democrats had a, you know, the cities were infested with crime before Trump came into office. The border was, was wide open. The Democrats now have a complete socialist takeover of their party. So for all the faults Republicans have, we're in a lot better shape than with the average working people, than the Democrats. So, you know, you asked about Iran. I'm not a foreign policy expert, obviously. I hope that this thing wraps up and gas prices will get down. I don't know whether to be optimistic or not. I've never trusted our intelligence community if, you know, I've been a very big critic of the intelligence community for a long time. I know the intelligence community told president that, you know, they were weeks away from a nuclear weapon. I hope, hope that was true. I don't know. But I appreciate the president wanting to protect America. And, and look, a lot of presidents wouldn't have done that. They, because they would have feared what would happen with, with oil prices. And President Trump, you know, tries to protect America. That's what he said he would do. And he's doing what he, what he said he would do. And, you know, some of this stuff's no fun. It's no fun having to, having to, you Know, go into Venezuela and fuck that guy out. No fun having to stare down Cuba right now. It's no fun having to bomb Iran and, you know, monitor the strait. I mean, all this stuff he's having to do. And all at the same time watching China, because who knows what China is up to. I mean, China is the worst of them all. So there's a lot of, a lot of pressure being president and we've got one that's up to the task.
- [51:12]
Miranda Devine
Yeah. He's not kicking the can down the road. I wanted to ask you just a little bit of a left field thing about the hemp industry in Kentucky. It's just a particular sort of pet project of mine because I'm so anti this sort of widespread use now of marijuana. And I know you have been against sort of decriminalizing marijuana, but do you regret at all bringing in the sort of hemp legislation in Kentucky, which was very lucrative for some time, but it's not just being used for sort of industrial use. It's. It's actually, I think most of the revenue comes from these THC products, these gummies and cannabis, cannabis oils and so on. Do you regret that? Do you think that it's morphed, hemp is morphed into to weed?
- [52:04]
James Comer
No, no. I'm a big believer in industrial hemp. When I was Commissioner of Agriculture, we became the first state to be able to, to grow industrial hemp and we were doing it for the fiber. So you can make hardwood flooring, you can make anything from wood with hemp, and that's more sustainable to the environment, growing hemp instead of cutting down trees and things like that. So you can also make ethanol with him. There's a million things you can do with him. What, what's become real big is the CBD industry, like you said. Now there's a difference in CBD from hemp versus CBD from marijuana. What I've tried to get in Washington ever since I've been up here, and I've tried to do it in the first Trump administration. I tried to do the Biden administration. I'm trying again in the Trump administration, desperately trying to get the FDA to regulate the CBD industry because there are good actors and there are bad actors a lot. If you go in these vape places, the CBD vapes, the CBD pods are probably illegal from, from China and who knows what's in them, but there are some CBD that you get a gas station that are probably, you know, no telling what's in them because Nobody's regulating them. But there are CBD labs in Kentucky, and I was just in one in Louisville a few weeks ago. There is nice as anything Merck or Pfizer or anyone else have. They have gummies to help you sleep, you know, and, you know, just gummies, like supplements and things like that, that aren't, you know, real high in thc. And I think that's good. And they want to be regulated. They want the FDA to come in. How many industries want to be regulated? The ones that are doing it right want to be regulated. And we've been trying to get the FDA to come in. Then you just like, okay, go in a store and pull something off the shelf. Okay, you say, this is so many milligrams of cbd, we're going to test it and see it. If it's not, then you shut them down and find them and maybe even put them in jail. So I think it's a good industry, and it's good for farmers, which is what I care about. As long as there's. There's some oversight. And unless there's regulation, it, you're going to get some bad actors and some bad products. And that's what's happening with the CBD. And that's where McConnell and I disagree. I'm more on the side. Rand Paul and I are trying to fix the industry. And now Andy Barr, who just won the Republican primary for Senate, we were all working on a bill to try to fix that, but we need the FDA to do its job and regulate it. And then the bad guys would be pushed out and the consumer would know what they're purchasing.
- [54:43]
Miranda Devine
Because Mitch McConnell, you mentioned, I think he's trying to get THC levels limited and to ban the use or at least limit the use of these synthetic cannabis elements, which, you know, I just see living in New York, people are high all the time, morning, noon and night.
- [55:04]
James Comer
And that's marijuana, though. Usually that's marijuana. You know, it smells like marijuana when I was in New York last time.
- [55:11]
Miranda Devine
But still, I mean, there are these stores that sell cannabis products, and you're given gummies and, you know, they're getting high off gummies as well as joints and bongs and everything else. So it just normalizes marijuana, which I think is one of the most. It's probably the worst, most insidious drug, causes psychosis, et cetera, and especially at the levels of THC now, which are nothing like what was in our youth.
- [55:39]
James Comer
That's. You know, when you talk about the medical grade, it's it's off the charts in the, the THC again, regulation. And, and I mean it, it could be, it could be. You know, the medical marijuana I've always felt like should be regulated like a pharmaceutical. The, the t, the hemp, the hemp products should be regulated like a nutraceutical. Like when you go in Vitamin World or gnc, you know, you buy the, you know, whatever supplement, it's got X number of milligrams of this or that, that's what it's got. Because, because they regulate it. And make sure right now with cbd, you go in those shops where these people are getting high on this stuff, you don't know what's in it. They say, oh there's so many middle ground. Well, you don't know if there is nobody. I don't know, it could be made in somebody's garage like a meth lab. You know, I just know the, the, the, the stuff in Kentucky is made in some pretty nice labs and there are people in Kentucky that do it in their backyard. I wouldn't put that, you know, I wouldn't get near that with a ten foot pole. Again, it's a wild west out there because there's no government regulation and the FDA should be the entity that step up and do that because I agree there are a lot of people walking around everywhere that are, that are high and don't need to be driving and you know, it's not a good health situation.
- [57:01]
Miranda Devine
Yeah. And just being from Kentucky, you know, you've got Mitch McConnell who I guess has been a thorn in the side of Donald Trump for, for a long time and, and then you had Thomas Massie. So you, you guys all catch the plane together home on the weekends and you, you must see each other a little bit. What's the, what's the mood been like between you?
- [57:26]
James Comer
I want to think I get along with McConnell, Massey and Rand Paul and honestly all three have been, all three have been thorns in the President's side on a lot of things, different things. But yes, I know this because the President expressed this to me.
- [57:41]
Miranda Devine
But you're his only, you're his favorite.
- [57:43]
James Comer
Kentucky. We've got a couple, he's in good shape with bar now and he likes Brett Guthrie from who's the Energy Commerce Chairman. So we're, we're trying to obviously work with the President, but we, we all work together pretty well in Kentucky and try to get things done. We have lots of disagreements. I disagree with McConnell over the, the stuff he got stuck in that last continuing resolution that would ban hemp in the future in Kentucky, not just synthetic, but pretty much anything from a consumption standpoint. And that's, I don't think was the way to do it because you've got all these businesses that have made these significant investments, all these farmers that have these crops put out and that just kind of pulls the rug out without any, any warning. I don't think that was, that was good. Rand and I, we, we agree on a lot of stuff ideologically, but he's very critical of the president on, on seems like everything. And maybe after what happened with Massey, Rand might try to get along a little bit better with Trump in the next two years.
- [58:49]
Miranda Devine
And lastly, I wanted to ask you about the Voter ID act, the Save America act, and you know, the idea that Larry Kudlow had, which seems to be gathering steam, which is that you put it into the reconciliation bill because then you don't need to get this, you know, huge majority of Democrats involved. Is that something that you think is going to fly? And what is the relationship like now between members of Congress and the president considering that he's, you know, come out against incumbents and beat them, like Massie being the latest. But I mean, there's a lot of them and I think that goes against a little bit the sort of camaraderie that you guys have.
- [59:39]
James Comer
I think the overwhelming majority of Congress still strongly supports the president. Again, we all have disagreements with the president, but, you know, we want to work together. When you're in Congress, you're one of the 535, so you've got to be a team player. You can't, you know, be solo and you know, it takes 218 votes to pass the bill in the House and 60 in the Senate. So you've got to form alliances and coalitions and there's an overwhelming alliance and coalition to the president. But yeah, it's with the Save America act, we supported that. Obviously we passed it out of the House. I would support any means possible to get that bill passed in the Senate. I fear the parliamentarian won't let it on a budget reconciliation bill. But I'm not the parliamentarian, so I don't have any say. But whatever they put it on, I'll, I'll vote for it because it's essential to have an integrity in our elections. And I think that affects turnout. We didn't have a real good turnout in Kentucky last week because I think people aren't 100% confident still on voting, and that's terrible. But in Kentucky, you have to show an ID to vote. We don't have an issue in Kentucky, but there are issues in other states. So I strongly support the Save America act and whatever they can get it through the Senate on, I'm good with.
- [60:58]
Miranda Devine
Thank you so much. Congressman Comer, it's been great talking to you.
- [61:02]
James Comer
Thank you for having me.
- [61:05]
Miranda Devine
Thanks for joining us on Pod Force One. I hi, I'm Miranda Devine. Let us know what you thought of today's show in the comments below. We'll be back next week with another big interview. You won't want to miss it.