Fireworks erupted at a House Oversight panel hearing Wednesday on President Biden‘s son, Hunter Biden, and his overseas business dealings after Republicans realized that Hunter Biden was in the room.
Biden had refused a previous GOP demand last month to appear for closed-door testimony, instead delivering remarks to the media outside the Capitol. On Wednesday, he showed up in person, though walked out minutes later.
Joined by his attorney and another associate, Biden exited Wednesday’s hearing just as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) began to speak.
Greene previously had shown explicit images of Biden at a hearing.
“What a coward,” Greene said Wednesday as Biden left.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) called Biden the “epitome of White privilege” and asked, “Who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?”
“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,” she said.
House Republicans are pushing to hold Biden in contempt of Congress.
GOP lawmakers have hammered him for avoiding a subpoena for a closed-door hearing on claims that his father benefitted from his personal business dealings with foreign countries while vice president.
Hunter Biden’s legal team has instead argued for a public hearing. His plans to show up for Wednesday’s hearing over his ditching a private legal deposition were not widely known until reporters spotted him at the Capitol.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a vocal supporter of former President Trump, defended the GOP’s demand for a private deposition with Biden before a public hearing: “This happens all the time. This is actually the protocol of the House.”
Ranking Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), meanwhile, knocked chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), saying he “completely failed to respond” to Biden’s past offers to sit down with the committee.
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