Fox News hasn’t learned any lessons from the collapse of its long-sought impeachment probe of President Joe Biden. The network’s biggest stars remain eager to peddle the GOP’s politically motivated investigations of Democrats in hopes of returning Donald Trump to the White House.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced on Friday that his committee had opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s “longstanding connections to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) entities and officials” and was seeking information from the FBI about the governor’s “problematic engagement” with China. While the connections are purportedly “longstanding,” Comer’s interest in them manifested just days after Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate.

Comer pitched his new probe on Monday night to Fox’s Jesse Watters, who nodded along as the chairman claimed Walz “really has embraced China's view of the world, the Chinese ideology, which is communism.” Comer also cited Walz’s trips to China as an educator to claim that “it’s very possible” China had been “grooming” the Minnesota governor “to try to have a foothold in our government.”

“It says a lot about Kamala Harris that she picked this guy to be her No. 2,” concluded Watters, who is apparently incapable of subtext.

“Yes,” replied Comer, not pretending that his work is nonpartisan.

This is absurd. Walz is obviously not a communist; he’s a mainstream Democrat who regularly touts his work helping small business owners. 

Minnesota is one of the top ten best states to start a business. And last year alone, we gained over 65,000 new businesses.

From providing $97 million in small business support to preventing tax increases, we continue working to expand economic opportunity across the state. pic.twitter.com/9G2h4RB8YD

— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) October 28, 2022

Nor is Walz some sort of Manchurian candidate. Beginning in 1989, he frequently visited China as an educator in the 1990s and 2000s — first teaching in the country and later shepherding American students for visits — and has expressed admiration for its people. But as a member of Congress, Walz proved an “outspoken critic of the Chinese government,” The New York Times reported, noting his “sharp critiques of China’s human rights record” and meetings with dissidents from Tibet and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Trump’s companies received millions of dollars from Chinese government entities while he was in the White House, and the former president regularly praises Chinese president Xi Jinping and vouched for his efforts to contain COVID-19 as the virus spread worldwide — all without triggering concern from Comer or Fox’s hosts.

Comer’s McCarthyian turn on Fox came just hours after the chairman concluded his Biden impeachment inquiry with a whimper. House Republicans launched that investigation in response to pressure from Fox, which showered Comer with attention over his hapless probes into the business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter. But the impeachment inquiry all but collapsed after the Justice Department indicted a key “informant” who had claimed the president had taken a hefty bribe for allegedly making up the story. The probe’s final report, released Monday morning, reveals “almost nothing … that wasn’t known or understood before the formal investigation began,” The Washington Post’s Philip Bump reported. 

But Fox stars like Watters are happy to be used as a propaganda tool by the GOP, and so he’s seamlessly moved on to Comer’s next bit of nonsense.

“Please keep us posted on these developments, this is an important investigation,” Watters told Comer at the end of their interview. The House Republican will surely oblige him.