Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) lashed out Tuesday after a Democratic colleague asked him about his family’s finances, snarling that the other lawmaker looked like “a Smurf.”
The lame insult came at the end of a fiery exchange with Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who challenged Comer in the midst of a hearing on the U.S. General Services Administration by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Referencing Comer’s crusade to probe the Biden family’s business practices, including an alleged loan from President Joe Biden to his brother that Comer has implied is evidence of wrongdoing, Moskowitz asked if Comer wanted to address a report that “you also do business with your brother with potential loans.”
The Florida Democrat was referring to The Daily Beast’s exclusive report last week that Comer allegedly engaged in some questionable land swaps with his brother, funneling “extra money” to him via a shell company, in the form of a $218,000 payment for a property they’d inherited from their father. (The story, contrary to Moskowitz’s telling, does not allege that Comer gave his brother a “loan.”)
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Comer snapped back that he would “love” the chance to respond to the report, according to the The Hill. “I’ve never loaned my brother one penny,” he explained. “My father, who was a dentist, had some farmland. He died and my brother couldn’t afford it. He wanted to sell it but he wanted to keep it in the family. So I bought it from my brother.”
He insisted the story was inaccurate, as he put it, “bullshit.”
He also appeared particularly aggrieved that his LLC would be described as a shell company—an accusation he has repeatedly lobbed against the Biden family.
As Moskowitz tried to reclaim his time, Comer pressed on. Apparently in reference to Moskowitz’s blue suit and tie—though notably, Moskowitz is one of the shortest male members of Congress—the Kentucky Representative sniped, “You look like Smurf here, going around and all this stuff… You continue to spew disinformation.”
Moskowitz landed the last blow in a tweet posted several hours later, conjuring up the fictional villain of the Smurf universe. “Gargamel was very angry today,” he wrote.
