- Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have both inadvertently slammed the Trump administration in recent weeks.
- Boebert used a Trump-era document as evidence against federal workers abusing remote work policies.
With friends like these, former President Donald Trump might do better with better-informed enemies.
MAGA-faithful Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have both inadvertently slammed the Trump administration in recent weeks while trying to take shots at President Joe Biden. Rep. Matt Gaetz, meanwhile, got schooled for unknowingly basing a critique of Biden's policies on a Communist newspaper.
Boebert, of Colorado, was the latest to seemingly undermine the Trump team — and feed Democrats' memes — during an Oversight Committee hearing Thursday on the Office of Personnel Management.
She questioned OPM Director Kiran Ahuja about "more than 25 percent of federal employees not logging into work" while teleworking, but Ahuja said she took issue with the characterization.
"It's in this leaked document, right here, that we just submitted into the record," Boebert said, challenging her.
Ahuja responded, "You're basing that from 2020, which is in the last administration and I can't speak to that."
Boebert was pointing to a reportedly leaked internal Department of Health and Human Services document that showed a portion of HHS employees on average were not using their Office 365 email accounts from March to December 2020.
Boebert grew frustrated when Ahuja could not immediately provide more recent data. The Colorado Republican then tried to point to the Trump-era document as evidence that federal workers are currently abusing remote work policies by "claiming they are teleworking and instead they are spending all day at a swim-up bar in Cabo."
—The Recount (@therecount) March 9, 2023
Before that, Greene falsely blamed the Biden administration during a hearing for the fentanyl deaths of two brothers, but they died in July 2020 while former President Donald Trump was in office.
While speaking at a Democratic conference, Biden couldn't resist making note of her error. He also said the Georgia Republican is helping Democrats recruit GOP support.
"Isn't she amazing?" Biden continued, smiling. "Whew!"
Meanwhile, Gaetz, the Florida Republican who nominated Trump for House speaker earlier this year recently looked to China for ways to stick it to Biden.
In late February, Rep. Matt Gaetz went after Department of Defense under secretary for defense policy Dr. Colin Kahl during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the military aid the US has provided to Ukraine in recent years.
Gaetz tried to corner Kahl with a question about whether CIA operatives are in Ukraine now, something Kahl declined to discuss in "an unclassified setting."
So Gaetz switched gears, asking the Biden administration official if the US had provided any weapons to Ukraine's Azov Battalion, a paramilitary force within the Ukrainian National Guard which Russia has accused of committing war crimes.
"Not that I'm aware of. But if you have information…" Kahl said, somewhat shaking his head.
Gaetz jumped right in, asking to enter into the hearing record a "Global Times investigative report" detailing how the US had been back-channeling weapons to Ukraine dating back to 2018.
Kahl perked up immediately.
"I'm sorry. Is this the Global Times from China?" he inquired.
"No, This is…" Gaetz said, then trailed off as he leaned over to take a good look at the source material. "Yeah. It might be," Gaetz said a few beats later.
"As a general matter, I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value," Kahl shot back. His retort was based on the Global Times being operated by the Chinese Communist Party.
Gaetz tried to recover, pressing Kahl to "just tell me if the allegation is true or false."
Kahl didn't budge, repeating the line about shunning CCP-sponsored propaganda. At which point Gaetz chimed in, "Fair enough. I would agree with that assessment."