Raskin blasts House GOP for rejecting Hunter Biden's offer to testify at an open hearing
WASHINGTON - Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., blasted his Republican colleagues for opposing Hunter Biden’s offer to testify at an open hearing, calling the move an “epic humiliation” in a statement published Tuesday.
After Hunter Biden received a House subpoena on Nov. 8 asking him to testify at a closed-door deposition about his overseas business deals when his father served as vice president. Biden’s lawyer proposed that he testify at an open hearing to prevent a “cloaked, one-sided process.”
However, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., rejected the request, saying in an interview on Newsmax Tuesday that expects to have a “very thorough, substantive deposition” with Biden first and then a public hearing.
However, Raskin argued that Comer rejecting Biden’s offer was a “frank confession that they are simply not interested in the facts and have no confidence in their own case or the ability of their own Members to pursue it.”
“After the miserable failure of their impeachment hearing in September, Chairman Comer has now apparently decided to avoid all Committee hearings where the public can actually see for itself the logical, rhetorical and factual contortions they have tied themselves up in,” Raskin wrote. “The evidence has shown time and again President Biden has committed no wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense.”
He added, “Chairman Comer’s insistence that Hunter Biden’s interview should happen behind closed doors proves it once again. What the Republicans fear most is sunlight and the truth.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., posted a similar statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that “The reason GOP don’t want a public hearing on Hunter Biden is because @OversightDems have hoisted them by their own petards in every public hearing this year. They’re scared of getting humiliated for not having an actual case (again), so they need to hide.”
Though House Republicans held their first impeachment inquiry hearing into President Joe Biden in September, all three witnesses, including a constitutional lawyer and forensics expert, told lawmakers the committee does not have evidence of an impeachable offense.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Raskin blasts House GOP for rejecting Hunter Biden's offer to testify at an open hearing