Hunter Biden made an unexpected appearance on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, during which Republicans remained calm, cool, and collected, not once attacking him or suggesting he had “no balls.” Just kidding, of course. They yelled at him and made that exact accusation.
Biden showed up, with his lawyers, to a hearing held by the House Oversight Committee, where Republicans began the formal process of holding him in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena for closed-door testimony. While the hearing was open to the public, Biden’s attendance apparently didn’t sit right with Republican representative Nancy Mace, who used her allotted time to tell the room, “My first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today? That’s my first question. Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege. Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a congressional subpoena to be deposed. What are you afraid of? You have no balls to come up here.” After Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, suggested the panel vote to let Biden testify there publicly, Mace told her colleague: “I’m speaking; are women allowed to speak in here?” She then added that Biden “should be arrested right here, right now, and go straight to jail.”
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Later, as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene started to speak, Biden left the room, causing the congresswoman from Georgia to declare, “Apparently you’re afraid of my words. What a coward.”
Outside the hearing room, a lawyer for Biden reiterated to reporters that the president’s son is willing to testify in a public setting, saying: “Hunter Biden was and is a private citizen,” Abbe Lowell said. “Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father. And, despite their improper partisan motives, on six different occasions since February of 2023, we have offered to work with the House committees to see what and how relevant information to any legitimate inquiry could be provided.” During a separate hearing on Wednesday, held by the House Judiciary Committee, whose Republican members also want to hold the younger Biden in contempt for refusing to testify in private, Representative Ted Lieu criticized his GOP colleagues for not letting Biden testify in public, asking, “Why are you scared? What are Republicans hiding from American people?”
As The Washington Post notes, Representative Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defied a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating January 6, 2021, last year, but was not held in contempt of Congress.
Bess Levin
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