Month: February 2024
Mitch McConnell stepping down as Republican leader
Longtime Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Wednesday he will step away from leadership in November.
McConnell, who turned 82 last week, announced his decision in the well of the Senate shortly after noon, a place where he looked in awe from its back benches in 1985 when he arrived and where he grew increasingly comfortable in the front-row seat afforded the party leaders.
"One of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter," he said in prepared remarks reported by The Associated Press. "So I stand before you today ... to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate."
The dramatic decision, which will set up a leadership election in the GOP conference with several likely candidates, comes as Republicans have expressed increasing discontent with McConnell's handling of the bipartisan border bill and national security supplemental package that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
MCCONNELL SAYS MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IS THE ‘BEST WAY FORWARD’
McConnell has also butted heads with former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, who recently said at a Fox News town hall, "I don't know that I can work with [McConnell]."
Though McConnell will not be GOP leader after this year, he intends to finish his current senate term, which ends in January 2027. Sources familiar with his thinking told Fox News Digital the senator's health was not a factor in his decision. McConnell had a concussion after a fall last year and two public episodes when he appeared to freeze while addressing reporters.
"As I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "A moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today."
Looking ahead to his departure, McConnell said it is time for "the next generation" to assume leadership in the Senate.
TRUMP TEASES FIGHT WITH MCCONNELL IN FOX NEWS TOWN HALL: ‘I DON’T KNOW THAT I CAN WORK WITH HIM'
"There will be a new custodian of this great institution next year. As you know, I intend to turn the job over to a Republican majority leader," he said. "I have full confidence in my conference to choose my replacement and lead our country forward."
Potential successors may include one of McConnell's lieutenants, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, John Thune, R-S.D., or John Barasso, R-Wyo.
Florida Senator Rick Scott had previously challenged McConnell for GOP leadership in 2022, but lost that leadership election 37-10.
Reacting to the announcement, several Republicans expressed gratitude for McConnell's leadership and honored his decades-long career in government.
"Mitch has had a long and honorable tenure as the Republican leader. I am grateful for his service," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who had called on McConnell to step down earlier this month. "He made the decision that it was time to step down as Leader, and I certainly respect his judgment in that regard. He has many legacies, but none is more consequential than confirming hundreds of principled constitutionalists to the federal judiciary."
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis called McConnell "a true legend of the U.S. Senate" and praised his leadership on tax reform, the coronavirus response and support for Ukraine.
"He has stayed true to President Reagan's principle of peace through strength as a stalwart supporter of NATO and Ukraine's fight for freedom against Russian aggression. I will always be grateful for Mitch's friendship, advice, and steadfast leadership of our conference during unprecedented times," Tillis said. "He leaves very big shoes to fill."
Others were less kind.
"I called on McConnell to step down over a year ago. This is good news," said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. But why wait so long — we need new leadership now."
Fox News Digital's Jamie Joseph, Liz Elkind and Julia Johnson, as well as the Associated Press contributed to this report.
The House GOP’s terrible math just got even worse
House Republicans have conclusively proven that they suck at math—and now the math has just gotten even worse for them.
On Wednesday, Democrat Tom Suozzi will be sworn in as the newest addition to the Democratic caucus, following his triumph in the special election to replace the extremely disgraced George Santos. Because Suozzi’s victory flipped New York’s 3rd District from red to blue, Democrats will now have 213 members in the House, while Republican ranks will remain frozen at 219.
That in turn means that House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comically slender margin for error will shrink even further, from a precarious three votes to a pitiful two. On any given roll call, should a trio of Republicans side with Democrats, that would spell instant death for the bill in question, since a 216-216 tie is the same as a loss.
We recently saw a preview of this very dynamic in action, when a tiny handful of renegades sank the GOP’s first attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Now dissidents can cut off Johnson’s plans with just three defections.
This logic, of course, applies to any faction of Republicans who are unhappy with Johnson, whether they’re relative pragmatists, like those who opposed impeaching Mayorkas, or far-right lunatics, like the junta that deposed Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.
And with critical deadlines coming up to fund government operations and avoid a shutdown, any three Republicans with any grievance at all could make Johnson’s already hellish life even more so.
This state of affairs, by the way, will likely persist until mid-June, when special elections to fill three remaining vacancies will finally conclude. (One seat was held by a Democrat and two, including McCarthy’s, were held by Republicans, though none are likely to change hands.) But even then, the improvement for Johnson will be minimal at best, since he’d simply be back to the pre-Suozzi status quo of being able to manage no more than three defectors.
What makes this all the more remarkable is that when Nancy Pelosi had a comparably small majority in the prior Congress, she continually made magic happen—and never lost a single roll call vote. Her successor, Hakeem Jeffries, has likewise presided over an era of extraordinary Democratic unity.
As voters cast their ballots this fall to determine control of the House, this stark contrast—between extremist meshugas and grown-up governance—will do nothing to help Republicans argue that they should remain in charge.
Campaign ActionHunter Biden appears for deposition
Hunter Biden appeared Wednesday on Capitol Hill for a closed-door deposition with lawmakers, a critical moment for Republicans as their impeachment inquiry into his father and the family's business affairs teeters on the brink of collapse.
“I am here today to provide the committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business,” Hunter Biden said in an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.
The deposition could mark a decisive point for the 14-month Republican investigation into the Biden family, which has centered on Hunter Biden and his overseas work for clients in Ukraine, China, Romania and other countries. Republicans have long questioned whether those business dealings involved corruption and influence peddling by President Joe Biden, particularly when he was vice president.
Yet after conducting dozens of interviews and obtaining more than 100,000 pages of documents, Republicans have yet to produce direct evidence of misconduct by the president. Meanwhile, an FBI informant who alleged a bribery scheme involving the Bidens — a claim Republicans had cited repeatedly to justify their probe — is facing charges from federal prosecutors who accuse him of fabricating the story.
Despite the stakes of their investigation, it remains unclear how much useful information Republicans will be able to extract from Hunter Biden during the deposition. He is under federal investigation and has been indicted on nine federal tax charges and a firearm charge in Delaware, which means he could refuse to answer some questions by asserting his Fifth Amendment rights.
The task of interviewing Hunter falls primarily to Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan, the GOP chairmen leading the impeachment investigation. They first subpoenaed Hunter Biden in November, demanding that he appear before lawmakers in a private setting. Biden and his attorneys refused, warning that his testimony could be selectively leaked and manipulated. They insisted that Hunter Biden would only testify in public.
On the day of the subpoena, Hunter Biden not only snubbed lawmakers waiting for him in a hearing room — he did also while appearing right outside the Capitol, holding a press conference where he denounced the investigation into his family.
Both sides ultimately agreed in January to a private deposition with a set of conditions. The interview with Hunter Biden will not be filmed and Republicans have agreed to quickly release the transcript.
“Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence,” Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement to The Associated Press. “This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come.”
Hunter will be the second member of the Biden family questioned by Republicans in recent days. They conducted a more than eight-hour interview last week with James Biden, the president's brother. He insisted to lawmakers that Joe Biden has “never had any involvement," financially or otherwise, in his business ventures.
Looming large over the interview are developments on the other side of the country in Nevada, where federal prosecutors this month indicted an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who claimed there was a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company. Prosecutors in court documents assert that Smirnov has had “extensive and extremely recent" contact with people who are aligned with Russian intelligence.
Smirnov's attorneys have said he is presumed innocent.
Republicans pressed the FBI last summer over the informant's claims, demanding to see the underlying documents and ultimately releasing the unverified information to the public. The claim was cited repeatedly in letters that House Republicans sent to impeachment witnesses.
Many GOP lawmakers say they have yet to see evidence of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for impeachment, despite alleged efforts by members of the Biden family to leverage the last name into corporate paydays domestically and abroad.
But the Republican chairmen leading the impeachment effort remain undeterred by the series of setbacks to their marquee investigation. Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said last week that the informant's indictment “does not change the fundamental facts” that the Biden family tried to benefit off the family name in several overseas businesses.
And Comer told Fox News on Tuesday that Smirnov was never “a key part of this investigation."
Both Comer and Jordan have insisted for the past year that their investigation and inquiry is focused solely on Joe Biden and what actions, if any, he took while as vice president or president to benefit his family. But at nearly every turn, their probe has had a consistent and heavy focus on Hunter Biden. Several lines of inquiry have been opened into Hunter's international business affairs, his artwork sales and even his personal life and on-and-off battle with addiction.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden has no shortage of legal headaches off Capitol Hill as he faces criminal charges in two states from a special counsel investigation. He’s charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges late last year, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over three years.
He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Campaign ActionHunter Biden testifies he ‘did not involve’ his father in his businesses, calls impeachment inquiry ‘baseless’
Hunter Biden testified Wednesday that he "did not involve" his father in his businesses, while blasting House Republicans for having "hunted" him in their "partisan political pursuit" and impeachment inquiry into his father.
Hunter Biden appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday for his closed-door, deposition at the House Oversight and Judiciary committees. Hunter Biden said Republicans have no evidence against his father "because there isn't any," according to an opening statement obtained by Fox News.
"I am here today to provide the Committees with the one uncontestable fact that should end the false premise of this inquiry: I did not involve my father in my business," Hunter Biden testified Wednesday morning. "Not while I was a practicing lawyer, not in my investments or transactions domestic or international, not as a board member, and not as an artist. Never."
"You read this fact in the many letters that have been sent to you over the last year as part of your so-called impeachment investigation. You heard this fact when I said it weeks ago, standing outside of this building. You heard this fact from a parade of other witnesses – former colleagues and business partners of mine, including my uncle – who have testified before you in similar proceedings. And now, today, you hear this fact directly from me," he continued in his opening statement.
The first son said that for more than a year, the committees "have hunted me in your partisan political pursuit of my dad. You have trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism — all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. "
"You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any," he testified.
The first son said House Republicans "have built your entire partisan house of cards on lies told by" past witnesses. Hunter Biden blasted his ex-business associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis who also testified as part of the impeachment inquiry, and the since-indicted former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov.
JOE BIDEN 'ENABLED' FAMILY TO SELL ACCESS TO 'DANGEROUS ADVERSARIES,' TONY BOBULINSKI TESTIFIES
"Rather than follow the facts as they have been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence, and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you, and those you rely on, keep peddling. Yes, they are lies," he said.
Hunter Biden, reflecting on "mistakes" he has made in his life, said he has "squandered opportunities and privileges that were afforded to me. I know that. I am responsible for that. And I am making amends for that."
"But my mistakes and shortcomings are my own and not my father’s, who has done nothing but devote his entire life to public service and trying to make this country a better place to live," he said.
And reflecting on his "battle with addiction," Hunter Biden said his father was there for him.
"He helped save my life. His love and support made it possible for me to get sober, stay sober and rebuild my life as a father, husband, son, and brother," he testified. "What he got in return for being a loving and supportive parent is a barrage of hate-filled conspiracy theories that hatched this sham impeachment inquiry and continue to fuel unrelenting personal attacks against him and me."
Hunter Biden went on to point to records of his text messages, emails and other communications that the committees have obtained.
"Republicans have taken my communications out of context, relied on documents that have been altered, and cherry-picked snippets of financial or other records to misrepresent what really happened," he said. "Examples of this include a few references to my family in emails or texts that I sent when I was in the darkest days of my addiction."
FLASHBACK: GOP-LED COMMITTEES RELEASE INTERIM REPORT ON HUNTER BIDEN, BURISMA PROBE
He added: "If you try to do that again today, my answers will reveal your tactics and demonstrate the truth that my father was never involved in any of my businesses."
The first son said he hopes his testimony will "put an end to this baseless and destructive political charade."
"You have wasted valuable time and resources attacking me and my family for your own political gain when you should be fixing the real problems in this country that desperately need your attention," he testified.
Hunter Biden's testimony comes after his uncle, President Biden's younger brother James Biden, testified last week as part of the impeachment inquiry. James Biden testified that President Biden "has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest" in his business ventures.
House Republicans have heard testimony from a number of the first son's former business associates, like Tony Bobulinski, who testified before the committees earlier this month that Joe Biden was involved in the family's business ventures. He also testified that he personally met with him.
Days before Bobulinski's testimony, another former business associate, Rob Walker, testified that Joe Biden met with the chairman of the Chinese energy firm CEFC that his brother and son did business with.
After Walker's testimony, the House Oversight Committee said it was able to "now confirm Joe Biden met with nearly every foreign national who funneled money to his son."
House Democrats and the White House have criticized the inquiry as baseless, but Republicans insist they have just scratched the surface of the investigation into Biden family businesses.
"The House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees have unearthed a record of evidence revealing Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ his family sold to enrich the Bidens," House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky, said in statement Tuesday. "Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from these schemes. Joe Biden attended dinners, spoke on speakerphone, showed up to meetings, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates.
"In fact, we’ve documented how Joe Biden has met with nearly all of his son’s foreign business associates as they were collectively funneling millions to the Bidens. Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence. This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come."
He added that the committee will continue to investigate to "determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted."
Hunter Biden’s closed-door deposition with GOP-led House committees
Hunter Biden is expected to appear for a closed-door deposition Wednesday as part of House Republicans' impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Follow here for the latest live news updates.
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: IVF, courts, and fundraising
Lourdes A. Rivera/HuffPost:
What the Alabama Supreme Court’s Decision Says About Our Failing Democracy
The high court ruling that the “wrongful death of a minor” law could be applied to an embryo created through in vitro fertilization is another extremist strategy in the criminalization of pregnant people.For those of us following the Alabama Supreme Court closely, this is, while deeply disturbing, not surprising. Ten years ago, this court ruled that the definition of a “child” included fetuses at any point in gestation in the context of child abuse laws, meaning a pregnant person could abuse their “child” even as an embryo, ushering in the unprecedented mass criminalization of pregnant people in the state: more than 600 such cases from 2006 through 2022, outpacing every state in the nation in criminalizing pregnant people.
Lots to say about the Michigan primary, but the pundits aren’t done rewriting their preferred narrative. Check in tomorrow, but meanwhile:
Marilou Johanek/Ohio Capital Journal:
National and Ohio Republicans desperately pretending they haven’t been attacking IVF
All Ohio Republican U.S. Senate candidates opposed November amendment passed by 57% of Ohio voters that guaranteed rights to fertility treatment
Don’t believe a word. The same extremists lining up to support a federal abortion ban, that would override hard-earned reproductive freedoms in states like Ohio, are now tripping all over themselves to profess their support for IVF and personal choice. Yeah right. The truth is freedom-killing MAGA Republicans were caught off guard after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos (created and stored for in vitro fertilization) are children under state law.
Public reaction to the decision — that repeatedly invoked scripture as its legal foundation for effectively stopping in vitro fertilization treatments across Alabama — was highly negative. Of course it was. Millions of Americans struggle with infertility issues. Many have turned to IVF for hope. So the patriarchal zealots on a mission from God to force their religious beliefs down our throats — to control what you read, say, do, who you marry, when and how you have kids — saw the polls on IVF and rushed to pretend they would absolutely protect access to it.
Don’t believe a word. The extreme agenda of Christian nationalists to inject government into our private lives and subjugate women as vessels of the state was bluntly exposed in the Alabama IVF case.
Brian Beutler/”Off Message” on Substack:
IVF And The Faithlessness Of The GOP
Republicans desperately trying to cover their tracks are running the same play as the Supreme Court justices who lied about settled law to get confirmed so they could overturn Roe v. Wade.
In reality, Republicans do not care about truth in advertising, per se.
To the contrary, they have embraced near-total faithlessness. Long gone are the days when they ran and lost on a plan to privatize Medicare—now they promise not to touch entitlements on the campaign trail, hoping to win enough power to simply break the promise. When their policies are unpopular or disruptive, they don’t even bother with Obama-style salesmanship, where policy and rhetoric at least point in the same direction. They now simply pursue a range of toxically unpopular policies, while telling voters they do not.
Trump is winning big with his base, but there’s no sign that he’s broadening support
AP VoteCast shows that Trump, the former president, has galvanized the core of the GOP electorate in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. His voters so far are overwhelmingly white, mostly older than 50 and generally without a college degree. This, however, is very different than the electorate he could face in November, when he’d have to appeal to a far more diverse group and possibly win over supporters of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Her pull has been limited in the GOP primaries – but her candidacy may foreshadow problems for Trump.
AP VoteCast reveals that a large portion of Trump’s opposition within the Republican primaries is comprised of voters who abandoned him before this year.
Mike Allen/Axios:
Trump's demographic problem
Those who went to the polls reflected Trump's strengths:
- This was the oldest South Carolina GOP electorate this century. (Chuck Todd)
- 60% of primary voters were white evangelical or born-again Christians. (CNN)
Reality check: That group isn't remotely big enough to win a presidential election. He would need to attract voters who are more diverse, more educated and believe his first loss was legit. South Carolina exit polls show he didn't do that.
- That's why Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the Senate's only Black Republican, remains on Trump's short list for V.P.
- A bigger problem yet: Polls show these skeptics would be even less likely to swing his way if he's convicted of a crime — a real possibility among his four ongoing cases, insiders tell us.
Marc Caputo/The Bulwark:
‘The numbers right now aren’t good.’
Why Trump is fundraising more than ever.
Trump’s legal issues have impacted his money picture in multiple ways: (1) They made some big donors nervous about giving to him, depriving him of money he otherwise would have had sooner. (2) They led some big donors to give to Haley instead, thereby prolonging her campaign. (3) They armed Trump critics with the argument that he wants the RNC to pay his legal bills. (4) The big financial judgments against him have made cash more scarce for Trump—which in turn make it harder to fill gaps by self-funding (which Trump has always been loath to do and hasn’t done this cycle).
“He’s much more engaged than I’ve ever seen him at this, and that’s because he has to be,” said one Republican familiar with the campaign’s finances. “The numbers right now aren’t good, but we should raise a billion dollars or $900 million at this pace now. We’ll have enough.”
Molly Jong-Fast/Vanity Fair:
Mike Johnson Is in Way Over His Head
Who’d have guessed a Trumpy backbencher would bungle the Speaker’s job?Well, now you’ll even find Republicans pointing out that Johnson wasn’t the first draft pick. “We went through five choices and Mike Johnson’s the fifth choice,” Representative Patrick McHenry told CBS News last week. McHenry, who served as Speaker pro tempore last year after Kevin McCarthy, his ally, was ousted, may feel like he can finally speak freely since he’s not running for reelection. He’s part of a wave of House GOP retirements that includes Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Mike Gallagher, and Ken Buck. (Notably, Gallagher and Buck both voted against the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.) In the CBS interview, McHenry continued to muse about Johnson: “He has not been around these leadership decisions. He’s had a really tough process. We’ve thrown him into the deepest end of the pool with the heaviest weights around him and [we’re] trying to teach him how to learn to swim. It’s been a rough couple of months.” Sounds like McHenry has a little Speaker’s remorse! Or, as Punchbowl put it bluntly on Monday: “Johnson, quite frankly, has been hesitant to lead on any issue at all.”
Cliff Schecter looks at Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gaetz:
Biden impeachment inquiry’s fate uncertain as Hunter Biden testifies
Hunter Biden is testifying in a closed deposition before three GOP-led House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry into his father, President Biden.
Hunter Biden testifies to Congress about business dealings
Hunter Biden's testimony comes after the Republican-led impeachment probe suffered a blow when a key witness was charged with lying about the family's business dealings.
Hunter Biden to testify behind closed doors as part of impeachment inquiry against his father
Hunter Biden will appear for his highly-anticipated and long-awaited deposition Wednesday on Capitol Hill as part of the impeachment inquiry against his father, President Biden.
The first son is expected to take questions from lawmakers and congressional investigators behind closed doors before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.
The deposition is expected to begin at 10 a.m.
Hunter Biden's expected testimony comes after his uncle, President Biden's younger brother James Biden, testified last week as part of the impeachment inquiry. James Biden testified that President Biden "has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest" in his business ventures.
House Republicans have heard testimony from a number of the first son's former business associates, like Tony Bobulinski, who testified before the committees earlier this month that Joe Biden was involved in the family's business ventures. He also testified that he personally met with him.
House Democrats and the White House have criticized the inquiry as baseless, but Republicans insist they have just scratched the surface of the investigation into Biden family businesses.
"The House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees have unearthed a record of evidence revealing Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ his family sold to enrich the Bidens," House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky, said in statement Tuesday. "Joe Biden knew of, participated in, and benefited from these schemes. Joe Biden attended dinners, spoke on speakerphone, showed up to meetings, and had coffee with his son’s foreign business associates.
"In fact, we’ve documented how Joe Biden has met with nearly all of his son’s foreign business associates as they were collectively funneling millions to the Bidens. Our committees have the opportunity to depose Hunter Biden, a key witness in our impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, about this record of evidence. This deposition is not the conclusion of the impeachment inquiry. There are more subpoenas and witness interviews to come."
He added that the committee will continue to investigate to "determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted."
Days before Bobulinski's testimony, another former business associate, Rob Walker, testified that Joe Biden met with the chairman of the Chinese energy firm CEFC that his brother and son did business with.
After Walker's testimony, the House Oversight Committee said it was able to "now confirm Joe Biden met with nearly every foreign national who funneled money to his son."
Also last week, congressional investigators heard testimony from a former business associate of Hunter's — Jason Galanis, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence. Galanis testified during a rare transcribed interview from an Alabama prison that Joe Biden was allegedly considering joining the board of a joint venture created by Hunter Biden and his business associates with ties to the Chinese Communist Party after he left the vice presidency.
Joe Biden's involvement would bring "political access in the United States and around the world," he claimed.
JOE BIDEN 'ENABLED' FAMILY TO SELL ACCESS TO 'DANGEROUS ADVERSARIES,' TONY BOBULINSKI TESTIFIES
Hunter Biden was first subpoenaed to appear for a closed-door deposition in November. The deposition was slated for Dec. 13, but the first son defied the subpoena. Instead of appearing to testify, he held a press conference on Capitol Hill during which he defended himself and his father, saying the president "was not financially involved in my business."
Ahead of his subpoenaed deposition, Hunter Biden had offered to testify in a public setting.
Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, rejected his request, noting that the first son would not have special treatment and pointing to the dozens of other witnesses who have appeared as compelled for their interviews and depositions. Comer and Jordan vowed to release the transcript of Hunter Biden’s deposition.
But after he defied the subpoena, the committees in January passed resolutions to hold the first son in contempt of Congress for defying the congressional subpoena. Before those resolutions were able to be considered by the House Rules Committee and the full House, Hunter Biden’s attorneys offered to discuss scheduling a new deposition for the first son — something House Republicans were willing to do.
HUNTER BIDEN DEPOSITION SCHEDULED FOR NEXT MONTH AFTER RISK OF BEING HELD IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS
The president’s son’s deposition comes after years of congressional investigations into his business dealings, beginning in September 2019 in the Senate. That investigation was led by senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings and foreign relationships came under heightened scrutiny in the fall of 2019 during the first impeachment of former President Trump.
Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.
Hunter Biden was quietly under federal investigation, beginning in 2018, at the time of the call, a probe prompted by suspicious foreign transactions.
Trump's request was regarded by Democrats as a quid pro quo because millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen. Democrats also said Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democratic political opponent.
Republicans had been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, specifically with regard to Burisma Holdings. House Republicans, who were in the minority at the time, made several requests to subpoena Hunter Biden for testimony and documents related to the impeachment of Trump and his business dealings that fell at the center of the proceedings.
FLASHBACK: GOP-LED COMMITTEES RELEASE INTERIM REPORT ON HUNTER BIDEN, BURISMA PROBE
Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, and Hunter had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving thousands of dollars per month. The vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid at the time if Shokin was not fired.
"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.' … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’" Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recalled the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.
"Well, son of a b----, he got fired," Biden said during the event. "And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."
Biden allies maintain he pushed for Shokin's firing when he was vice president due to concerns the Ukrainian prosecutor went easy on corruption, and they say that his firing, at the time, was the policy position of the U.S. and international community.
Now, as part of the impeachment inquiry, Republicans are investigating any involvement Joe Biden had in his son’s business dealings.
Last year, the federal investigation into Hunter Biden that began in 2018 also came under heightened scrutiny when two IRS whistleblowers claimed politics were influencing prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long probe.
Those allegations sparked congressional investigations and, ultimately, the impeachment inquiry. They also put pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to give then-U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss special counsel authority.
Special counsel Weiss indicted the first son on federal gun charges in Delaware last year. Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to those charges. His attorneys are attempting to have that case dismissed.
Also last year, Weiss charged Biden with nine federal tax charges, which break down to three felonies and six misdemeanors for $1.4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid.
Weiss charged Hunter Biden in December, alleging a "four-year scheme" in which the president's son did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports.
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His attorneys are also seeking to have that case dismissed.