On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) reacted to House Republicans planning to establish a committee overseeing federal agencies and their potential politicization by stating there are already committees that do this and having a committee to “look at how agencies may have been politicized is indeed an effort and an exercise in politicizing them.”
Spanberger said, “First and foremost, when I was campaigning for re-election across Virginia’s seventh district, not once did anyone ever mention their curiosities related to the president’s son’s computer. They talked about inflation, they talked about the economy, they talked about the hardships their families are facing, the challenges facing their kids, their communities. They talked about the issues that matter to them in their personal life and in their ability to provide for their family and ensure their own stability. And so, what I find so shocking is that this is kind of a major departure from so much of the rhetoric that we heard along the campaign trail from our counterparts across the aisle. What they said they wanted to work on is very different from what now appears to be their primary concern. And specifically…we know that President Trump has financial entanglements with China, has financial entanglements with foreign governments and so it is just kind of stunning to me that they are so committed to whatever this is in terms of these efforts.”
She continued, “And notably, there are many challenges — I’m a former CIA officer, I am first among those to be saying that we need to be looking out for our own national security, prioritizing it, foreign entanglements of anyone in leadership is an issue, certainly, we need to be looking at how the United States is going to be long-term competitive with a rising China, in [the] face of a rising China. But that’s not what this is about. This is at the same time that we see an intended cut of $75 billion to defense spending, which is just an extraordinary departure from what has been kind of the commonly-accepted notion that we need to invest in our own defense, invest in our own national security to keep us safe and competitive on the global stage. So, Congressman Comer’s (R-KY) comments, I find totally out of step with what matters to the American people, but not all and out surprising given some of the rhetoric we’ve seen across the aisle.”
Host Andrea Mitchell then asked, “And how concerned are you about this new committee that’s going to have oversight and target federal agencies like the IRS with false claims, totally discredited by The Washington Post and other fact-checkers that there are 87,000 new IRS agents, false claims about the intelligence community, and…the efforts to cut spending on Ukraine?”
Spanberger responded, “Well, the question here is what is the circumstance? We already have oversight committees. We already have the Judiciary Committee that has oversight over the FBI and over the Department of Justice. We already have the House Foreign Affairs Committee that has oversight over the State Department. We already have the House Intelligence Committee that has oversight over the intelligence community. So, the idea that they are creating this new entity meant to look at how agencies may have been politicized is indeed an effort and an exercise in politicizing them.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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