Ocasio-Cortez defends Hunter Biden in battle over GOP subpoena

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) defended Hunter Biden on Wednesday as Republicans ripped the president’s son for refusing to testify before House lawmakers behind closed doors.

Biden visited the Capitol on Wednesday to make a public statement, but he did not go to his scheduled deposition with the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. Republicans have threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez, who joined a press conference with other Democrats, blasted the probe and said Republicans had failed to dig up a single witness with direct evidence of wrongdoing in their impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

“[I]t’s also important to note, that not only is the committee not allowing Hunter Biden to testify publicly, but they have not called a single witness, a single first-hand witness to any of their allegations,” she said. “They haven’t allowed anybody to testify publicly, because they do not have a single witness to any of their alleged allegations. They don’t.”

“We have asked virtually every single person that has come to testify for this committee, ‘Have you seen, witnessed, participated, in a room, anything with first-hand testimony of any of what is being alleged?’ And every single witness that they have called before us has said, ‘No, I haven’t seen anything, didn’t hear anything, wasn’t party to anything,'” she added.

“So this is just storytelling at this point.”

In his remarks outside of the Capitol on Wednesday, Hunter Biden said he was ready to answer questions publicly and defended his father against claims of wrongdoing.

“For six years, I’ve been the target of the unrelenting Trump attack machine shouting, ‘Where’s Hunter?’” Hunter Biden said in a statement to reporters. “Well, here’s my answer. I am here.”

“Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business. Not as a practicing lawyer. Not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not my investment at all nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” he said.

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Wednesday they would start proceedings to hold the president’s son in contempt of Congress for not appearing at the deposition. 

“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,” they said in a joint statement.