Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer has been ramping up his media campaign attacking President Joe Biden as GOP Speaker Mike Johnson signals he is readying a vote for a formal impeachment inquiry. On Monday, Chairman Comer released a two-minute video alleging President Biden has been lying and alleging “corruption” related to payments the President’s son, Hunter Biden, sent his father, claiming it is evidence of foreign money flowing to the President.

Reporters were quick to punch holes in the Kentucky Republican’s allegations.

“Today the House Oversight Committee is releasing subpoenaed bank records that show Hunter Biden’s business entity, a Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden. This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account, but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world,” Comer says in his latest video (below.)

But journalists are calling out Comer, and debunking his claims.

READ MORE: ‘Authoritarianism’: Florida Says Its Public Schools Exist to ‘Convey Government’s Message’

Pointing to Comer’s video, Public Notice founder Aaron Rupar writes, “this is a bold claim for which absolutely 0 evidence is presented in the video.”

“So, these three payments of $1,380 each (totaling $4,140) appear to be Hunter Biden paying his dad back for truck loan/lease payments that his dad paid on his son’s behalf when Hunter was low on cash,” explains journalist Yashar Ali, noting his “source is an NY Post article about Hunter’s finances and emails from the Hunter Biden email archive.”

Responding to Ali’s post, Rupar adds, “James Comer said these payments were linked to China. James Comer is lying. Don’t be like James Comer.”

“These appear to be monthly payments (already reported in the media) of $1,380 for a truck,” writes Mother Jones’ D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn. “I don’t think fronting a son money for a truck is an impeachable offense. Another swing and a miss.”

Even the right-wing Washington Examiner on Monday reported, “An email found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop suggests Hunter Biden had listed the $1,380 payments to his father as reimbursements for a Ford Raptor truck.”

READ MORE: ‘Given My Experience’: Gaetz Waiting to ‘Render Judgment’ on Florida GOP Chair Accused of Rape

Watch Chairman Comer’s video below or at this link.

🚨BREAKING🚨

Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden. The bank records don’t lie.

Owasco PC received payments from Chinese-state linked companies & other shady entities. Joe Biden knew & benefitted from his family’s business schemes. pic.twitter.com/MfvtA4yEZU

— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) December 4, 2023

GOP Governor Ron DeSantis often talks about what he calls “the free state of Florida” but Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody has declared the Sunshine State’s public schools, including its libraries, do not exist to promote the free exchange of ideas, but rather, to “convey the government’s message.”

In a legal brief, the State of Florida argues it has a First Amendment right to remove LGBTQ books, or any book, from public schools and libraries, USA Today’s Tallahassee Democrat reports.

“It’s a contention that First Amendment experts and advocates call extreme and chilling. But the state maintains the books on school shelves represent protected government speech. Public school libraries are ‘a forum for government speech,’ it says, not a ‘forum for free expression.'”

READ MORE: ‘Given My Experience’: Gaetz Waiting to ‘Render Judgment’ on Florida GOP Chair Accused of Rape

“Public-school systems, including their libraries, convey the government’s message,” Attorney General Moody (photo) also wrote in the legal brief.

“Like the selection of monuments,,” Moody writes, quoting a legal case: “the government speaks through its selection of which books to put on the shelves and which books to exclude.”

She also argues that the “purpose” of public school libraries “is to support the government’s educational mission.”

Moody also cites the very narrow recent anti-LGBTQ Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative that was riddled with falsehoods.

Florida’s First Amendment stance has experts calling the State’s claims “authoritarianism.”

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“There’s considerable irony in that those who seek to limit access to books in school libraries often say they’re fighting for parental rights,” Ken Paulson, the director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, told the Tallahassee Democrat. “If government speech determines what books can be in the library, the government is essentially saying your children can only see the ideas that the government has approved.”

“That’s not parental rights,” he added. “That’s authoritarianism.”

NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the well-known scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders, called it “straight-up authoritarianism.”

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is urging his fellow Florida Republicans to wait to “render judgment” on Christian Ziegler, the Trump-endorsed state Republican Party chairman accused of rape by a woman he and his wife allegedly had a consensual sexual relationship with.

“Given my experience I tend to wait for the facts to come out before rendering judgment,” Gaetz told Florida Politics. The far-right Florida GOP lawmaker has faced both DOJ and House Ethics Committee investigations into a variety of possible crimes, among them, alleged sex trafficking, alleged sex with an under-aged girl, illicit drug use, and public corruption.

Sarasota police are reportedly investigating Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler after a woman he has known for two decades accused him of rape. Christian’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, told police she and her husband had a consensual sexual encounter with the woman who is now his accuser.

READ MORE: The Christian Ziegler/Moms for Liberty Scandal Could Hurt Ron DeSantis

“Christian Ziegler is also alleged to have secretly videotaped the sexual encounters between the couple and the woman, sources said,” the nonpartisan Florida Center for Government Accountability reported last week.

Bridget Ziegler is an elected member of the Sarasota County School Board and a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which is a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated extremist group that opposes LGBTQ equality and has pushed for book bans. “Although Bridget Ziegler has officially left Moms for Liberty, she also still has ties to the group, having been a featured speaker at their national summit. She also helped develop DeSantis’ ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that Moms for Liberty publicly advocated in favor of,” the SPLC noted in its report on the group.

“A search warrant shows Sarasota Police have footage of Ziegler showing up at the accuser’s apartment, where she told police he came in and forced her to have sex with him,” Florida Politics reports. “Christian Ziegler to date has rebuffed calls for his resignation, including by Florida Republican leaders including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.”

Christian Ziegler on Saturday sent an email to Florida Republican Party members refusing to resign. “We have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up,” he wrote, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

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On Thursday, Moms for Liberty posted then removed a statement supporting its co-founder, Bridget Ziegler. It later reposted the statement.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Moms for Liberty and its nationwide chapters combat what they consider the ‘woke indoctrination’ of children by advocating for book bans in school libraries and endorsing candidates for public office that align with the group’s views. They also use their multiple social media platforms to target teachers and school officials, advocate for the abolition of the Department of Education, advance a conspiracy propaganda, and spread hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.”

The DOJ reportedly told Gaetz’s attorneys earlier this year he would not be prosecuted, but the House Ethics Committee reopened its investigation. Gaetz has denied all accusations.