WASHINGTON ― In a Hail Mary bid to keep his impeachment inquiry going, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Wednesday he would ask the president to testify.
Comer made the announcement on social media after wrapping up a hearing in which Democrats mocked him for having failed so far to produce evidence that could warrant removing Joe Biden from office.
“In the coming days, I will invite President Joe Biden to the House Oversight Committee to provide his own testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies with his assistance,” Comer said.
The president’s brother, James, and his son, Hunter, spoke to Republicans in closed-door interviews earlier this year, but Hunter Biden declined to appear at Wednesday’s hearing.
It’s hard to imagine the sitting president showing up on Capitol Hill to entertain queries about his family members.
The impeachment inquiry so far has pursued a mix of unsubstantiated accusations against the president, including that he did his son an official favor — pushing for the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor — when he was vice president and that he participated in his son’s foreign business deals after his vice presidency.
A slew of Hunter Biden’s former business partners have told Republicans they never saw the president participate in his son’s work, but Tony Bobulinski ― who testified at Wednesday’s hearing ― insisted the elder Biden was involved.
Bobulinski based his accusation on the fact that he met Biden twice in 2017, when he and Hunter Biden were part of a group trying to wrangle investments from a Chinese company. Bobulinski said he and Joe Biden spoke about their respective family backgrounds in a hotel bar, and that the next day they chatted after Biden made a speech at the hotel.
“He thanked me for helping his son and brother, and asked me to keep an eye on them as I walked him out to his car,” Bobulinski said Wednesday.
The White House panned the hearing in a statement, but has not yet responded to the idea of Biden testifying.
“That hearing was embarrassing for House Republicans. A total waste of time,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams said. “It’s time to move on from this sad charade.”
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