Hunter Biden has promised to testify before the House Oversight Committee, asking that he be able to do so in public for fear that a closed door meeting with Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and antagonistic Republicans like Nancy Mace (R-SC) will result in more innuendo, not less, and less transparency, not more.
Republicans displeased with Biden’s willingness to answer questions in front of the entire nation, rather than in front of the committee alone, want to hold Biden in contempt of congress for defying their subpoena.
As a result, Republicans who have lit a political bonfire under what they characterize as a “two-tiered” justice system (pro-Biden, anti-Trump) have had the reality of “different rules for different people” tossed back at them. It’s now Democrats who are shouting about a two-tiered system in which a subpoena triggers different obligations, depending on which party you’re in.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was particularly damning in his criticism, noting the hypocrisy of holding Biden in contempt for failure to comply with a subpoena while Republican members of the same Congressional committees have defied their own subpoenas.
The House Judiciary Committee, which also voted to advance the Biden contempt charge for his alleged non-compliance, is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). Jordan is, as Swalwell sees it, throwing his stones from a very fragile glass house.
“Is this a joke?” Swalwell asks in the segment below. “Seriously is this a joke? This is a committee that now cares about subpoena compliance?”
Swalwell to Jordan: How dumb do you think the American people are that you would seek to hold someone in contempt when you are 608 days, 15 hours, 21 minutes, and 47 seconds out of compliance of your own subpoena pic.twitter.com/Y5TuNPH0wu
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 10, 2024
Swalwell targets Jordan directly, reminding Jordan and his House colleagues that 608 days ago Jordan received a subpoena from a Congressional committee wanting “cooperation” as it investigated the January 6 insurrection, the “greatest crime in the history of our country” — and that Jordan failed to comply. Jordan did not sit for either a closed-door testimony or a public one.
.@RepSwalwell: It is absurd that this committee, where its own chairman is in defiance of a congressional subpoena, is holding a hearing about somebody else who actually wants to show up and testify publicly for their own congressional subpoena. pic.twitter.com/1PI09lnUIE
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) January 10, 2024
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