Republicans Rage After Hunter Biden Snubs Subpoena

Hunter Biden took House Republicans to task on Wednesday, defying a subpoena for closed-door testimony and instead delivering a statement outside the Capitol decrying the party’s efforts to impeach his father, President Joe Biden.

In  November, Republicans subpoenaed Hunter, ordering him to appear before members of Congress to answer questions in a closed-door setting. Biden rejected the demand despite threats to hold him in contempt of Congress, instead offering to testify before the committee in a public setting, where his statements would not be subject to cherry-picking and selective releases by the GOP.

On Wednesday morning, Biden flouted Republican’s threats, delivering remarks at a press conference scheduled at the same time his deposition was set to begin, with the Capitol — and the furious lawmakers within — as his backdrop.

“I’m here today to make sure the House committee’s illegitimate investigations of my family do not proceed on distortions, manipulated evidence, and lies,” Biden said to told reporters. “For six years MAGA Republicans including members of the House committees who are in a closed-door session right now, have imputed my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family, and my friends. They’ve ridiculed my struggle with addiction, they’ve belittled my recovery, and they have tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass and damage my father,” Biden said.

The president’s son stated unequivocally that President Biden “was not financially involved” in his businesses. Hunter admitted that he was “extremely irresponsible with my finances” but “to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. It is shameless.”

“There is no fairness or decency in what these Republicans are doing,” he added.

Biden at one point directly addressed Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). “Here I am Mr. Chairman, taking up your offer when you said ‘we can bring these people in for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose.’”

“Well, I’ve chosen,” Biden added, “I am here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions.”

House Republicans were not happy.

“I don’t know anyone in more trouble than Hunter Biden and he just got in more trouble today,” Comer told reporters after Biden skipped out on the deposition.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Republicans were “disappointed that he didn’t show up,” and indicated that the committees overseeing investigations into Biden would look to hold him in contempt of Congress. Jordan added that if Biden were to testify publicly now “you’re gonna get filibusters, you’re gonna get speeches, you’re gonna get all kinds of things.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) tweeted from within the House Oversight Committee chamber that she and her colleagues “were waiting” for Biden to show up. “I have no problem holding those who ignore Congressional subpoenas in contempt of Congress. And I don’t much care what side of the aisle you’re on either,” she added in a subsequent tweet.  Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) echoed demands for contempt proceedings in a statement to Axios. “When you show up on the Capitol steps to hold a press conference instead of sitting for your deposition, it would seem you want to be held in contempt,” she said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) took to social media to voice her anger over Biden’s refusal to bow to the party’s demands. “Rather than follow the lawful subpoena for a deposition issued by Chairman [James Comer] Hunter Biden decided to play circus outside the Capitol this morning,” she wrote, adding that Republicans “must immediately move forward to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress.”

Republicans are struggling to explain what potential high crimes and misdemeanors — the standard of misconduct needed to impeach a president — Joe Biden has committed. Instead, the party is plowing forward with an impeachment inquiry that even their cheerleaders at Fox News admit lacks a basis in fact or evidence.

So why not accept Hunter Biden’s offer to testify before the public. As Hunter explained it on Wednesday, “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say. What are they afraid of?”

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