James Comer Calls Ukraine 'Adversary' of United States

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer called Ukraine an "adversary of the United States" during an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, comparing the country at war to Russia.

The Republican congressman from Kentucky, a guest on the channel's Mornings with Maria, was asked by host Maria Bartiromo about allegations that President Joe Biden's family took money from foreign nationals in an influence-peddling scheme at the time he was vice president.

The case is being investigated by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, chaired by Comer, who in May said the group had "obtained thousands of pages of financial records" which he claimed would reveal that the Biden family, including Hunter Biden, and other associates had received "millions" from foreign sources.

Updating Bartiromo on the investigation against the Biden family, Comer said that the probe was focusing on countries like Ukraine and Russia.

"We are focused on Ukraine, we are focused on Russia, we are focused on a few new countries that I don't think anybody knew about, that we're starting to realize that they were receiving money from," he said.

"All these countries are adversaries to the United States. All these countries are countries that have reputations for corruption—but yet the Bidens were sitting there with their hands out," he added.

Newsweek reached out to James Comer and the White House via email for comment on Wednesday.

In May, the White House dismissed Comer's claims that President Biden was involved in the alleged payments made by his family and was knowledgeable of them. In a statement quoted by NPR, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said Comer "has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called 'investigations' with legitimacy."

He added that the Kentucky congressman "has hidden information from the public to selectively leak and promote his own hand-picked narratives as part of his overall effort to lob personal attacks at the president and his family."

A lawyer for Hunter Biden mentioned by the news outlet said that Republicans had "nothing to show" against his client.

It's not the first time that Comer listed Ukraine among the U.S.'s "adversaries across the world," saying so in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity in January.

During the interview, Comer described a "pattern here with communist China, with Ukraine, with Russia, with our adversaries across the world" when describing the then-planned investigation into the Biden family's business dealings.

While Comer has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying that "Putin is not good," he has repeatedly expressed doubt over Washington's aid to Kyiv, stressing the need for accountability to U.S. taxpayers.

"I have a lot of questions about what is going on in Ukraine with respect to foreign aid," he said in January.

Update 07/19/23, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include additional information and context.