House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) threatened to remove Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) amid a committee meeting Tuesday following a dispute over the Florida Democrat calling President Trump a “grifter.”
“People like the grifter-in-chief, Trump, and President Musk are openly using their public offices to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars,” Frost said during the meeting.
“So, if we want to look at waste, fraud and abuse, which I’m down to do, why is there complete silence on the other side of the aisle about looking at the complete grifter that … is the president of the United States and the richest man on the earth,” the Florida Representative added before being interrupted.
Shortly after, Comer asked Frost if he wanted “to revise your remark with respect to improperly identifying the president of the United States.”
“I’ll say ‘President Musk’ and ‘grifter-in-chief Trump,’” Frost responded.
The ranking member on the committee, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) later told Comer that he didn’t “believe that Mr. Musk is protected by the rules of the House or the committee.”
“We’re looking at the — disparaging the president now,” Comer responded.
“But I don’t believe Mr. Frost disparaged the president, I believe he disparaged Mr. Musk,” Connolly responded, with more crosstalk following after and Frost saying that he would “say something else.”
“President Musk and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who is engaged in grifting of the American people, often use their public offices to enrich themselves. Someone on the other side was just asking, ‘How would you feel if you called someone else from the…” Frost said before Comer cut him off.
“Hold off, hold off, Mr. Frost, hold off,” Comer said, later adding that “the chair finds the words from the gentleman from Florida are not parliamentary because they constitute personalities toward the president, which, if you sit in the House floor, that’s always uttered by the presiding officer on the House floor, you cannot disparage the president of the United States.”
More back-and-forth in the meeting occurred, with Comer later saying that Frost “is barred from further participation.”
“I wanna say it’s despicable that this committee is going to silence me for bringing up—” Frost later said, before lots of shouting could be heard and Comer told Connolly that he was “going to have” Frost removed “if he doesn’t refrain.”
The Hill has reached out to Comer and Frosts’s offices, as well as the White House for comment.
