After Hunter Biden skipped a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, choosing instead to call out House Republicans in a scathing public statement, a Fox News panel slammed the GOP’s “botched” effort to begin an impeach inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Shortly after the 9:30am deadline, Biden appeared outside the Senate in front of a bank of microphones and announced that he’d defy a subpoena from the GOP-led House Oversight Committee unless he could testify publicly.
“For six years. I have been a target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting Where’s Hunter? Well, here’s my answer. I am here,” Biden said defiantly. “For six years. MAGA Republicans, including members of the House committees who are in a closed door session right now, have impugned my character, invaded my privacy, attacked my wife, my children, my family and my friends,” he said. “They have ridiculed my struggle with addiction. They belittled my recovery and they have tried to dehumanize me all to embarrass and damage my father, who has devoted his entire public life to service,” he said of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-OH, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer, R-Ky.
“Yet 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,” he concluded. “Well, I’ve chosen I am here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions. 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? I’m here. I’m ready.”
“I am here to testify at a public hearing today to answer any of the committee’s legitimate questions. Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics.”
— Hunter Biden slams House Oversight Cmte. amid deadline for him to testify before closed doors pic.twitter.com/ie9bPQgAaU
— The Recount (@therecount) December 13, 2023
In response, Republicans rushed to tell reporters that they planned to continue their pursuit of Biden. Comer, for his part, said Wednesday that Republicans would initiate proceedings to hold Biden in contempt of Congress and could take action sometime after the holidays.
🚨🚨🚨
Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.
We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden.
Read my full statement with @Jim_Jordan below.👇 pic.twitter.com/0m5zc4k4a6
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) December 13, 2023
“Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings. We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden,” Comer and Jordan said in a joint statement.
Contempt proceedings first require a vote by the committee that issued the subpoena. It is then forwarded to the full House floor for a vote. The Department of Justice then decides whether to pursue the case or not. Biden is already facing prosecution by the Justice Department for his failure to pay taxes.
In Oversight committee room… We’re waiting…
If Hunter Biden doesn’t show up – hold him in contempt!
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) December 13, 2023
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The full House is set to vote on opening an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Wednesday. In their statement, House Republicans claimed the inquiry vote would “strengthen our legal case in the courts as we face obstruction from the White House and witnesses.”
🚨HOLDING HUNTER BIDEN IN CONTEMPT🚨
Hunter Biden defied a lawful subpoena today, and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings. There will be no special treatment because his last name is Biden.
Joe Biden & his family must be held accountable for their corruption. pic.twitter.com/TFcWpVl4PK
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) December 13, 2023
Fox News, which had a live stream going in anticipation of Biden’s anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill event, immediately slammed Republicans for getting played by the president’s son.
On Wednesday’s edition of “Outnumbered,” Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen called the GOP’s impeachment effort a “mistake.” Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy, meanwhile, said Republicans “botched” the rollout.
Another Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett, recently told Sean Hannity that he would “advise against” Republicans pursuing a Biden impeachment.
The intraparty criticism for House Republicans also spread to CNN on Wednesday.
“Jim Jordan is an absolute hypocrite,” former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger said after Jordan announced his intentions to pursue contempt of Congress charges against Biden, telling CNN:
Jim Jordan in front of the Rules Committee when we were talking about holding Steve Bannon or somebody in contempt. He said in front of the Rules Committee that the Department of Justice and the FBI should be the ones investigating Donald Trump. And that would be their role. Now, of course, he’s against the Department of Justice and the FBI investigating Donald Trump. He’s for the sanctity of the subpoena by the US Congress until he’s the one that gets subpoenaed by the US Congress.
And he also voted against enforcing subpoenas against people like Steve Bannon and against people like Mark Meadows. I mean, this is — the hypocrisy is mind numbing.