Is it concerning for a leader of the House Oversight Committee to tell potential investigation targets to “lawyer up”? For Fox News star host Sean Hannity, it depends on which party is in control of Congress — and who is being targeted.
Incoming House Minority Leader Jim Jordan (R-OH) bolstered Fox’s nascent effort to delegitimize congressional oversight following Democratic midterm victories with a Wednesday interview on Hannity’s Fox program, where he denounced incoming Oversight Committee Chairman Robert Garcia’s (D-CA) comment that Trump administration officials should “lawyer up.” But in an appearance on the same show just eight months ago, current Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) used identical language about a Democratic target of one of his own probes.
President Donald Trump, members of his administration, Republican elected officials, and MAGA media figures are scrambling to paint any future congressional oversight by Democrats as partisan, illegitimate, and even potentially illegal. Their absurd complaint rests in part on a November 3 statement from the House Oversight Committee’s Democrats in which ranking member Garcia — who is on track to lead the committee — said simply: “Lawyer up.”
Hannity is among the Trump stalwarts now pretending to be deeply concerned with Garcia’s remarks. On his radio show the day after the election, he cited Garcia’s “lawyer up” comment as evidence that “lawfare will be the biggest priority of Democrats.”
“Pretty, pretty chilling,” Hannity added.
Jordan, in his first interview after House Republicans elected him as their leader, likewise took issue with Garcia’s comment while appearing on Hannity’s November 11 Fox show. He said that Republicans on “every single committee will have to work every day, in committee, pushing back, going for the facts” against Democrats, pointing to Garcia’s “lawyer up” as evidence that “they're just attacking their political opposition.”
None of these people are remotely on the level — and Hannity and Jordan in particular have spent years jointly assembling bad-faith investigations of Trump opponents. The idea that either of them have suddenly become deeply sensitive to such language is risible.
Indeed, Comer, in a March 24 appearance on Hannity’s Fox show, discussed his own pending investigation into alleged fraud in California by using the same language as Garcia about the state’s Democratic governor: “Gavin Newsom better lawyer up.”
Hannity apparently did not find Comer’s statement “very chilling” — instead, the host replied, “Wow, I hope he’s paying attention,” before thanking the Republican committee chairman for coming on his show. He then teased a segment about his own “little spat with Gavin” earlier that day.
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