The White House on Wednesday swiftly pushed back on House Republicans, most notably House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, for issuing subpoenas targeting Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden, calling it part of a smear campaign against President Biden.
The House Oversight Committee took the remarkable step to seek depositions from the president’s son and brother as part of its impeachment inquiry, with the news breaking into the daily White House press briefing.
“This is an investigation that has been going on for a year now and has turned up zero evidence of wrongdoing by the president, because there is none,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to questioning on the breaking news.
“But, Republicans continue to double down on a baseless, baseless smear campaign against the president and his family instead of being focused on the American people’s needs, what they’re asking for, what is it that they truly want us to focus on — they continue to double down on this,” she said.
The White House also released a memo lashing out at Comer, who is leading the investigation into Biden as chairman of that committee.
The memo was entitled “James Comers’ Latest Effort to Distract from House GOP Failures with Political Attacks on the President and His Family” and argued that the year-old investigation has not turned up evidence.
“Turn on Fox News, and you’re more likely to see a House Republican talking about the President’s family than making life better for American families,” White House oversight spokesperson Ian Sams said in the memo.
He argued that House Republicans are going to “continue throwing spaghetti at the wall” but have heard from witnesses who refute their claims, citing NBC. And, he accused Comer of targeting the president’s family to damage him, including casting aspersions about his grandchildren and his other son Beau Biden, who died in 2015.
Sams said that House Republicans “should do their jobs” and join Biden towards bipartisan progress instead of pursuing the investigation.
That message was reiterated by Jean-Pierre, who said the White House and Congress need to deal with issues regarding national security, the economy, health care and gun violence but that Republicans instead “continue to try to smear this president and his family on a baseless, baseless investigation.”
The House Oversight Committee asked James Biden’s wife, Sarah Biden, and Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen, to sit for transcribed interviews, as well as Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, and her sister Elizabeth Secundy.
The panel is also requesting to speak with Tony Bobulinski, whom Hunter Biden’s attorney has accused of lying to the FBI.
The subpoenas come weeks after the committee demanded Hunter and James Biden’s personal bank records and also include a subpoena for Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Rob Walker.