James Comer's Biden probes may cost him shot at replacing Mitch McConnell in Senate: report
August 31, 2023
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's age and health issues have raised new questions about how long he might remain in office, but one of the leading candidates to replace him – Rep. James Comer – may have hurt his chances by investigating President Joe Biden and his family, according to a report.
The 81-year-old McConnell appeared to freeze on camera for the second time in as many months, and he reportedly has fallen multiple times this year, suffering a concussion in March. Correspondent Scott Wong told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that would-be successors are jockeying for position behind the scenes.
"We do know the three Johns – Thune, Cornyn and Barrasso – are seen as potential successors [as minority leader], most likely John Thune," Wong said.
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McConnell so far has not committed to seeking re-election in 2026, and if he does not run the 51-year-old Comer would be seen as a leading Republican candidate to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
"We have to remember that James Comer is a very ambitious man," Wong said. "He ran for governor back in 2015 in the primary against Matt Bevin, falling just 83 votes shy of winning that primary. If not for those 83 votes, he very likely could be the sitting governor of Kentucky today.
"That's sort of the backdrop. I spoke with him before the McConnell episode, and what he told me, you know, I asked specifically, 'Are you interested in running for governor again? Are you interested in running for Mitch McConnell's seat, whenever that becomes available?' He would not rule that out. He says, 'Well, I can't predict the future, you know, who knows what's going to happen in the future?' Very clearly, he is not shutting the door on that."
However, Comer's rightward turn as chairman of the House Oversight Committee – where he has become an attack dog against the president and his family – has surprised some longtime friends and associates, and it could wind up hurting his chances for seeking higher office.
"I spoke with a number of Democrats who know Comer well from his days back in Kentucky," Wong said. "What they told me was he was seen as somebody who was bipartisan, who was pleasant to work with, who reached across the aisle to Democrats to work with them on parochial issues affecting the state of Kentucky, including an effort to legalize industrial hemp, which was one of his sort of pet projects.
"So they said that has all changed, of course, in the wake of his becoming the Oversight chairman, and as he has led this investigation into Hunter Biden and the Biden family."
"James Comer pushed back on the Democrats saying he had lost his bipartisan touch," Wong added. "He rattled off a litany of records, you know, touting his bipartisanship over the years, including saying he wants to work in the future on ethics reform legislation with progressives on his committee, including [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez] and [Rep. Ro Khanna], which was surprising to me."
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