(Washington) Two Republican-dominated parliamentary committees recommended Wednesday that US President Joe Biden’s son be found guilty of obstructing Congress’ investigative powers, after one of the hearings turned into a free-for-all when Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance there.
The House Oversight Committee was discussing a resolution to this effect in the morning when Biden Jr., a prime target of the Republican opposition, burst into the Capitol, flanked by his lawyer.
Hunter Biden is being slammed by conservatives for his refusal to participate in a closed-door congressional hearing on his overseas financial interests. He demands a public hearing.
Facing two indictments, including one for tax evasion, he is accused by Republicans of having done dubious business in Ukraine and China by capitalizing on his father’s networks and name.
” Fear ” ?
“Who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?” », Launched Nancy Mace, Republican elected official from South Carolina.
“You are the embodiment of white privilege, coming here before the committee, spitting in our faces, ignoring a parliamentary subpoena to be heard. What are you afraid of ? You have no balls,” she went so far as to tell the president’s son.
“We can hear it now. Let’s vote and listen to Hunter Biden. What are you afraid of ? », retorted a Democratic elected official.
Shortly after, when Trumpist elected official Marjorie Taylor Greene was preparing to speak, Hunter Biden left the room.
“What a coward,” she commented.
Outside, Abbe Lowell, the lawyer for the president’s son, accused the Republicans of wanting to reach his father, a candidate for re-election, through him. The November election should pit Mr. Biden against the great favorite of the right, Donald Trump.
Republicans are attacking “someone who offered to publicly answer all their questions.” The question here is: what are they afraid of? ” said Mr. Lowell.
The White House, for its part, limited itself to saying that Hunter Biden made “his own decisions, as he did today on how to respond to Congress.”
At the end of the day, the Committees on Oversight and the Committee on Judiciary each adopted a resolution recommending that the House find Hunter Biden guilty of obstructing the investigative powers of Congress.
If the House approved the text, it would be up to the Justice Department to decide whether or not to indict the president’s son.
Hostilities
Also on Wednesday, another committee held a hearing on a possible indictment of Mr. Biden’s Minister of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, accused by the right of being responsible for the “migratory crisis” at the southern border.
Mr Mayorkas was not present.
“The elements at our disposal say it clearly: Minister Mayorkas is the architect of the devastation that we have been witnessing for almost three years,” denounced Republican elected official Mark Green.
Nearly 10,000 migrants arrived every day at the US border from Mexico in December, a record and “a humanitarian disaster” according to conservatives.
The executive emphasizes that its request for an additional $14 billion to secure the border has been blocked in Congress for months.
For Alejandro Mayorkas to be removed from office, a majority of lawmakers in the House of Representatives must first vote on his impeachment before the Senate, which in turn must find a two-thirds majority to complete the process.
A practically impossible scenario given that the Republicans only hold a very slim majority in the House of Representatives and that the Senate has a Democratic majority.
With these hearings, Republicans are intensifying hostilities against the Democratic president in this election year.
Conservatives in the House have also launched an impeachment investigation against Joe Biden, whom they accuse of having used his influence when he was vice-president of Barack Obama (2009-2017) to allow his son Hunter to make business in China and Ukraine.
The president and his son deny these accusations outright.