Why Jim Jordan’s new subcommittee is 'pitiful' — not 'scary': Maddow producer

When the U.S. House of Majority's new Republican majority was seated in January and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) became House speaker, far-right Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was put in charge of the House Judiciary Committee as well as the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Jordan has promised that Democrats need to be very afraid of the 'whistleblowers' he would be unveiling in connection with the Weaponization Subcommittee. But journalist Steve Benen, in a March 3 opinion column for MSNBC's MaddowBlog, argues that the Subcommittee has more bark than actual bite.

Benen notes that a 316-page report released by House Judiciary Democrats on March 2 shows that GOP witnesses being billed as 'whistleblowers…. are not actual whistleblowers, and more importantly, they've 'engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility.'"

Benen explains, "This comes on the heels of Jordan recently holding a hearing of his 'weaponization' committee, in which Republicans whined about old grievances without new information. It was at the same hearing that the first two Republican witnesses, who were supposed to testify about the 'weaponization' of the federal government, were a professor who was once an intern in a government office and an FBI agent who retired in 1999."

READ MORE:Red flags about Jim Jordan’s 'weaponization' committee ID’d by past congressional investigators

When the January 6 Select Committee was probing the January 6, 2021 insurrection, Jordan — a Donald Trump loyalist — and other MAGA Republicans repeatedly accused Democrats of "weaponizing" the federal government against their political rivals. And he has been touting the Weaponization Subcommittee as an effort to bring Democrats to justice. But Weaponization Subcommittee, according to Benen, is only fierce in Jordan's mind.

"When House Republicans launched their misguided 'Weaponization' Committee, it was intended to strike fear in the hearts of their perceived political foes," Benen observes. "The panel’s targets were supposed to take one look at the Committee’s comically broad mandate, and its lineup of partisan attack dogs, and tremble. But the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government isn’t scary; it's pitiful."

READ MORE: 'Wild' GOP government weaponization hearings will be loaded with Fox News contributors

Read Steve Benen’s full MSNBC opinion column at this link.