House Republicans are taking an offensive posture in the two months leading up to the presidential election, a move that could bloody the waters around Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) before November.
Starting Friday, GOP-led House committees will begin a series of hearings that appear to aim at holding Democrats' feet to the fire for policies implemented under the Biden administration that Republicans say have harmed the public, according to the chamber's newly released schedule of events for the coming weeks.
The House Judiciary Committee will launch the political offensive Friday as lawmakers descend on Southern California for a hearing at a city council building to hear from local officials, law enforcement, and business officials on the impact of illegal immigrants entering the United States from Mexico in the region.
Republicans have pivoted recently from referring to the illegal immigration influx as the "Biden border crisis" to the "Biden-Harris border crisis," as stated in the hearing announcement. The move refocuses the border crisis as being the fault of not only President Joe Biden but Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
The hearing , titled "The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: California Perspectives," is meant to give local authorities the chance to comment on the impact that the crisis has had on communities and residents, according to accounts from the Riverside County district attorney, Riverside County undersheriff, and mayors of cities Santee and Vista. The hearing will take place 9 a.m. local time Friday at the Santee City Hall.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), a senior member on the panel, will host the hearing in his district's city of Santee.
“Many may think of it as kind of a congressional ‘Oh, you’re trying to affect an election.’ I think the special prosecutor just reindicting [Trump] 65 days out, that is more overtly affecting an election," Issa told Punchbowl News. "These are messaging [hearings] that we’ve been doing.”
Issa maintained that the hearing was a continuation of others that the committee has held at various locations on the border under Biden, not a political stunt calculated to take place right before the election.
“Tomorrow’s field hearing continues the series of hearings that Judiciary has conducted in every region of the country. The Issa team has worked and planned on making this happen in the San Diego region all the way back to, well … back when Biden was still running for president,” Issa spokesman Jonathan Wilcox told the Washington Examiner.
Issa and fellow Republicans on Judiciary pushed hard last year for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was indicted by Congress earlier this year for his handling of the southern border but ultimately not convicted by the Senate.
More than 10 million immigrants have been intercepted at the nation's border under the Biden administration — more than even a two-term White House administration previously.
Republicans held a series of hearings at various locations on the southern border in 2023 and Democrats, at times, declined to travel to the hearings.
A spokesperson for Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would not attend the Friday hearing but did not disclose the reason.
In recent months, migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally from Mexico have increasingly traveled nearly twice the distance through Mexico to bypass Texas and enter through California. In some cases, migrants have hiked miles into California in search of Border Patrol because agents have been overwhelmed responding to the influx.
Texas has beefed up its border security at popular crossing spots since 2021, installing layers of barbed wire along the river's edge in Brownsville, Eagle Pass, and El Paso, as well as deploying more than 10,000 National Guard soldiers and state troopers to apprehend drug smugglers and human traffickers that get past federal Border Patrol agents.
California, a progressive state where Harris was a senator and San Francisco district attorney, has not bolstered state efforts to support the Border Patrol despite the increase in crossings.
Next week, the committee will return to Washington following a lengthy summer recess. Judiciary Republicans have laid plans to hold a hearing on Capitol Hill with victims or family members who were victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants admitted into the country under Biden and Harris.
Tammy Nobles, the mother of Kayla Hamilton, told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that she will testify before the panel next Tuesday on "The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Victim Perspectives." Nobles will speak about the MS-13 gang member convicted for the rape and murder of her 20-year-old autistic daughter in Maryland in 2022.
The committee has not disclosed other witnesses who will be in attendance.
Democrats have pushed back on the Republican agenda and blamed their counterparts for having no legislative actions to focus on, thus their focus on hearings instead.
“I think [Republicans] regret having a convention devoted to the facially ridiculous proposition that Donald Trump is a warm and compassionate man,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told Punchbowl News. “Now, regretting that, they’re basically going to try to have their convention in the House of Representatives with a kitchen sink full of attacks on the Democratic ticket.”
The following day, Judiciary members will meet to hear about the consequences of "soft-on-crime policies."
Meanwhile, the House Emergency and Commerce Committee will hold a subcommittee hearing the same day on how it says the Biden-Harris energy agenda has caused spikes in consumer costs.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are simultaneously investigating what they have described as "long standing connections" between Walz and China.
House Veterans Affairs Committee will also get in on the action with a hearing next Tuesday aimed at examining how the administration has handled veteran issues.
Although Republicans refused to label the hearings as an intentional pre-election attack on Democrats, the Harris campaign said they were part of a broader strategy to go on the offensive.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Donald Trump and his extreme MAGA allies in the House are launching pathetic, false attacks on the Vice President and Governor Walz because they cannot win on their own records of taking away Americans' freedoms and putting billionaires and corporations ahead of hard-working families,” said a Harris spokesperson in a statement. “These desperate attacks are not new, and they have consistently failed because the American people want leaders like Vice President Harris who are focused on delivering real results and moving our country forward, not more of the same political games we’ve seen so many times from House Republicans.”
House Judiciary ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) did not provide responses.
Local News
