Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) this week officially retires from Congress, leaving what he has derisively called the “crazy train” of Washington for a likely better-paying gig at Fox News.
At the cable network, the former chairman of the House Oversight Committee will have an opportunity to boost his profile for a potential 2020 gubernatorial run in Utah.
What he will no longer be doing, for better or worse, is leading congressional oversight over the executive branch ― a job he relished during the Obama administration. The four-term House member made a name for himself early in his congressional career with his combative, made-for-TV approach to Obama-era investigations, including the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya; Planned Parenthood; the IRS; and the Secret Service.
After President Donald Trump’s inauguration, however, Chaffetz lifted his foot off the gas. He chose not use his power of subpoena to investigate Trump’s many conflicts of interest, the president’s firing of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to sway the presidential election.
“It’s sort of ridiculous to go after him when his financial disclosure is already online,” Chaffetz told HuffPost last year of Trump’s conflicts.
What concerned Chaffetz instead were years-old scandals of former President Barack Obama’s administration. This month, for example, he criticized the Trump administration over its refusal to fire IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who was named to the post by Obama. And, in a classy Instagram, Chaffetz implied there was one thing that made life worth living in Congress: hounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Here are some other highlights from Chaffetz’s tenure in Congress:
In 2012, Chaffetz admitted he “absolutely” voted to cut funding for U.S. embassy security amid GOP condemnation of the Obama administration for the Benghazi attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.
“When you’re in tough economic times, you have to make difficult choices how to prioritize this,” Chaffetz said in an interview at the time.
In 2015, as he led the investigation into Secret Service misconduct, employees at the scandal-plagued agency began to look into Chaffetz. One agent discovered that Chaffetz had once applied to work at the Secret Service ― and had been rejected. The failed job application eventually leaked to the press.
Later that year, Chaffetz got himself into hot water over a misleading funding chart he showed during a congressional hearing while grilling Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood. The chart was created by an anti-abortion group, and Richards challenged it in the high-profile September 2015 Oversight Committee hearing.
Last year, Chaffetz interrogated former FBI Director James Comey for clearing Clinton of criminal wrongdoing for her private email server while serving as secretary of state.
What might be the top all-time Chaffetz moment, however, is the cynical about-face he made after the infamous “Access Hollywood” recording surfaced, capturing Trump making despicable comments about women. Chaffetz, appearing on several news shows after the tape exploded into the news in October, dropped his support for Trump’s candidacy. He said he couldn’t look his 15-year-old daughter in the eye and talk about Trump’s vulgar remarks.
“I’m out,” he declared on CNN. “I can no longer endorse Donald Trump for president. I just can’t do it.”
A mere two weeks later, Chaffetz sealed his profile in courage by boldly taking it all back.