How Democrats helped orchestrate surprise Hunter Biden appearance to slight House GOP

Hunter Biden appeared for a last-minute press conference on Wednesday morning, much to the surprise of House Republicans who met in a hearing room across Capitol Hill at the same time awaiting a scheduled deposition with the president’s son.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Biden to appear before the committee for a private deposition on Wednesday, a request he repeatedly denied to push for a public hearing instead. When Republicans refused to do so until a private meeting was held, Biden staged public remarks of his own — appearing outside the Capitol to respond to the committee’s allegations just 10 minutes after his deposition was scheduled.

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In the days leading up to Wednesday, the first son’s legal team repeatedly denied that Biden would travel to Washington, D.C., for the deposition. Biden’s appearance came as a surprise to several Republican lawmakers, who were kept in the dark on whether he would appear at all.

Biden’s surprise press conference was added to the Capitol’s event schedule but was listed as being organized by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) without any mention of the president’s son’s appearance. Swalwell appeared alongside Biden as he gave his remarks, and the two were also flanked by entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris, who lent Biden money to pay off his debts.

The committee subpoenaed Hunter Biden as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, claiming the president’s son is a key witness who can provide information on whether the elder Biden abused his power during his time as vice president. Hunter Biden said he would testify publicly before the committee, but Oversight Republicans said they wanted to meet with him in private first, a demand that has prompted backlash from Democrats.

“Chairman Comer … asked for Hunter Biden to come testify. He said publicly or privately. Hunter said, ‘Well, let’s do it publicly,’” Swalwell said. “Hunter’s here. And so, to Chairman Comer, I say: ‘What are you afraid of hearing from?’ It sounds like the only reason you would want to do this privately is if you don’t have the goods.”

Hunter Biden’s scheduled deposition came just hours before the House is set to vote on formalizing its impeachment inquiry into the president on Wednesday, the latest step in the GOP’s monthslong investigation into the elder Biden over alleged influence peddling by members of his family.

The inquiry is looking into three main things, all of which relate to Hunter Biden: whether President Biden improperly used his position of power to enrich himself and his family, whether he used his influence to pressure the Department of Justice to help his son avoid criminal charges, and how involved he was in his family’s foreign business dealings.

Democrats have repeatedly pushed back on Republicans’ impeachment efforts, arguing investigators have not been able to uncover any evidence that implicates the president in any crime. Democratic members on the Oversight Committee pointed to Republicans’ refusal to allow Hunter Biden to testify publicly as evidence of this.

“Chairman James Comer and Chairman [Jim] Jordan would not take yes for an answer. Why?” said Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD). “Because they wanted to conduct the deposition in a closed-door interview so the public couldn’t see it, and so they could continue to cherry-pick little pieces of evidence and distort and misrepresent what had taken place there.”

House Oversight has already been conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Biden since former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) unilaterally greenlit the investigation in September. However, now Republicans are pushing to formalize the inquiry to gather more evidence, especially as the White House has used the lack of an impeachment vote as justification not to comply with some congressional requests.

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Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said Hunter Biden’s decision to skip the deposition is grounds for filing a contempt of Congress resolution.

“He doesn’t get to set the rules,” Comer told reporters on Wednesday.